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Conquest (j/'Nature 



BY 

HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS, M.D., LL.D. 



ASSISTED BY 

EDWARD H. WILLIAMS, M.D. 



NEW YORK AND LONDON 

THE GOODHUE COMPANY 

Publishers - MDCCCCXI 



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Copyright, 1910, by The Goodhue Co. 
Copyright, 191 1, by The Goodhue Co. 



A H rights reserved 






'CI.A309143 
WO, f 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

MAN AND NATURE 

The Conquest of Nature, p. 4 — Man's use of Nature's gifts, p. 6 — 
Man the "tool-making animal," p. 7 — Science and Civilization, p. 8 
— Clothing and artificially heated dwellings of primitive man, p. 
10 — Early domestication of animals, p. 11 — Early development 
to the time of gunpowder, p. 12 — The coming of steam and elec- 
tricity, p. 15 — Mechanical aids to the agriculturist, p. 19 — The 
development of scientific agriculture, p. 20 — Difficulties of the early 
manufacturer, p. 21 — The development of modem manufactur- 
ing, p. 24 — The relation of work to human development, p. 25 — 
The decline of drudgery and the new era of labor-saving devices, 
p. 27. 

CHAPTER n 

HOW WORK IS DONE 

Primitive man's use of the lever, p. 29 — The use of the lever as con- 
ceived by Archimedes, p^ 21 — Wheels and pulleys, p. 32 — Other 
means of transmitting power, p. 35 — Inclined planes and derricks, 
p. 37 — The steam-scoop, p. 38 — Friction, p. 35 — Available sources 
of energy, p. 41. 

CHAPTER III 

THE ANIMAL MACHINE 

The oldest machine in existence, p. 43 — The relation of muscle to 
machinery, p. 44 — How muscular energy is applied, p. 44 — The 
two types of muscles, p. 45 — How the nerve- telegraph controls the 
muscles, p. 47 — The nature of muscular action, p. 45 — Applica- 
tions of muscular energy, p. 52 — The development of the knife 
and saw, p. 53 — The wheel and axle, p. 55 — Modified levers, p. 57 
— Domesticated animals, p. 59 — Early application of horse-power, 
p. 60 — The horse-power as the standard of the world's work, p. 61. 



[ui] 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV 

THE WORK OF AIR AND WATER 

First use of sails for propelling boats, p. 62 — The fire engine of 
Ctesibus, p. 63 — Suction and pressure as studied by the ancients, 
p. 64 — Studies of air pressure, p. 65 — The striking demonstration 
of Von Guericke, p. 66 — The sailing chariot of Servinus, 1600 a.d., 
p. 68 — The development of the wind-mill, p. 69 — The development 
of the water-wheel, p. 70 — The invention of the turbine, p. 72 — 
Different types of turbines, p. 73 — Hydraulic power and its uses, 
p. 74 — The hydraulic elevator, p. 76 — Recent water motors, p. 77. 

CHAPTER V 

CAPTIVE molecules: the story of the steam engine 

The development of the steam engine, p. 79 — The manner in which 
energy is generated by steam, p. 80 — Action of cylinder and piston, 
p. 81 — Early attempts to utilize steam, p. 82 — Beginnings of mod- 
em discovery, p. St, — The "engine" of the Marquis of Worcester, 
p. 84 — Thomas Savery's steam pump, p. 85 — Denis Papin invents 
the piston engine, p. 88 — Newcomen's improved engine, p. 89 — 
The use of these engines in collieries, p. 90 — The wastefulness of 
such engines, p. 92 — The coming of James Watt, p. 93 — Early ex- 
periments of Watt, p. 95 — The final success of Watt's experiments, 
p. 97 — Some of his early engines, p. 98 — Rotary motion, p. 99 — 
Watt's engine, "Old Bess," p. loi — Final improvements and 
missed opportunities, p. 102 — The personality of James Watt, p. 107. 

CHAPTER VI 

the master worker 

Improvements on Watt's engines, p. no — Engines dispensing with 
the walking beam, p. in — The development of high-pressure 
engines, p. 112 — Advantages of the high-pressure engine, p. 114 
• — How steam acts in the high-pressure engine, p. 116 — Compound 
engines, p. 117 — Rotary engines, p. 119 — Turbine engines, p. 124 
— The Turhinia and other turbine boats, p. 125 — The action of 
steam in the turbine engine, p. 126 — Advantages of the turbine 
engine, p. 127. 

CHAPTER VII 

gas and oil engines 

Some early gas engines, p. 133 — Dr. Stirling's hot-air engine, p. 
133 — Ericsson's hot-air engines, p. 134 — The first practical gas 
engine, p. 135 — The Otto gas engine, p. 136 — Otto's improvement 

[iv] 



CONTENTS 

by means of compressed gas, p. 138 — The "Otto cycle," p. 139 — 
Adaptation of gas engines to automobiles, p. 140 — Rapid increase 
in the use of gas engines, p. 141 — Defects of the older hot-air 
engines, p. 145 — Recent improvements and possibilities in the use 
of hot-air engines, p. 146. 

CHAPTER VIII 

THE SMALLEST WORKERS 

The relative size of atoms and electrons, p. 148 — What is electricity? 
p. 149 — Franklin's one-fluid theory, p. 150 — Modem views, p. 153 
— Cathode rays and the X-ray, p. 156 — How electricity is developed, 
p. 159 — The work of the dynamical current, p. 162 — Theories of 
electrical action, p. 165 — Practical uses- of electricity, p. 168. 

CHAPTER IX 

man's NEWEST CO-LABORER: THE DYNAMO 

The mechanism of the dynamo, p. 173 — The origin of the dynamo, 
p. 176 — The work of Ampere, Henry, and Faraday, p. 177 — Per- 
fecting the dynamo, p, 178 — A mysterious mechanism, p. 180 — 
Curious relation between magnetism and electricity as exemplified 
in the dynamo, p. 182. 

CHAPTER X 

NIAGARA IN HARNESS 

The volume of water at the falls, p. 184 — The point at which the 
falls are ''harnessed," p. 185 — Within the power-house, p. 186 — 
Penstocks and turbines, p. 188 — A miraculous transformation of 
energy, p. 189 — Subterranean tail-races, p. 191 — The effect on the 
falls, p. 192 — The transmission of power, p. 194 — "Step-up" and 
"step-down" transformers, p. 198. 

CHAPTER XI 

THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

Primitive torch and open lamp, p. 202 — Tallow candle and per- 
fected lamp, p. 205 — Gas lighting, p. 207 — The incandescent gas 
mantle, p. 208 — Early gas mantles, p. 209 — How the incandescent 
gas mantle is made, p. 211 — The introduction of acetylene gas, p. 
212 — Chemistry of acetylene gas, p. 214 — Practical gas-making, 
p. 215 — The triumph of electricity, p. 218 — Davy and the first 
electric light, p. 220 — Helpful discoveries in electricity, p. 222 — 
The Jablochkoff candle, p. 223 — Defects of the Jablochkoff candle, 
p. 22 5 — The improved arc light, p. 2 2 6 — Edison and the incandescent 
lamp, p. 228 — Difficulties encountered in finding the proper ma- 



[v] 



CONTENTS 



terial for a practical filament, p. 230 — " Parchmentized thread 
filament, p. 233 — The tungsten lamp, p. 234 — The mercury-vapor 
light of Peter Cooper Hewitt, p. 236 — Advantages and peculiar^ 
ities of this light, p. 240. 

CHAPTER XII 

THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

Early mining methods, p. 242 — Prospecting and locating mines, p. 
243 — "Booming," p. 246 — Conditions to be considered in mining, 
p. 248 — Dangerous gases in mines, p. 249 — Artificial lights and 
lighting, p. 251 — Ventilation and drainage, p. 252 — Electric ma- 
chinery in mining, p. 253 — Electric drills, p. 254 — Traction in 
mining, p. 256 — Various types of electric motors, p. 257 — "Tel- 
phers," p. 261 — Electric mining pumps, p. 263 — Some remark- 
able demonstrations of durability of electric pumps, p. 265 — Elec- 
tricity in coal mining, p. 266- — Electric lighting in mines, p. 269. 

CHAPTER XIII 

THE AGE OF STEEL 

Rapid growth of the iron industry in recent years, p. 271 — The 
Lake Superior mines, p. 272 — Methods of mining, p. 273 — "Open- 
pit" mining, p. 274 — Mining with the steam shovel, p. 276 — From 
mine to furnace, p. 278 — Methods of transportation, p. 279 — Ves- 
sels of special construction, p. 281 — The conversion of iron ore 
into iron and steel, p. 283 — Blast furnaces, p. 284 — Poisonous gases 
and their effect upon the workmen, p. 286 — From pig iron to steel, 
p. 287 — Modem methods of producing pig iron, p. 288 — The Besse- 
mer converter, p. 289 — Sir Henry Bessemer, p. 291 — The "Besse- 
mer-Mushet" process, p. 293 — Open-hearth method, p. 294 — Alloy 
steels, p. 295. 

CHAPTER XIV 

SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS OF APPLIED SCIENCE 

The province of electro-chemistry, p. 298 — Linking the laboratory 
with the workshop, p. 299 — Soda manufactories at Niagara Falls, 
p. 300 — Producing aluminum by the electrolytic process, p. 300 — 
Old and new methods compared, p. 301 — Nitrogen from the air, 
P- 303 — What this discovery means to the food industries of the 
world, p. 304 — Prof. Birkeland's method, p. 307 — Another method 
of nitrogen fixation, p. 309 — Cost of production, p. 312 — Elec- 
trical energy, p. 313 — Production of high temperatures with the 
electric arc, p. 314 — The production of artificial diamonds by the 
explosion of cordite, p. 315 — Industrial problems of to-day and 
to-morrow, p. 316. 



1 



[vi] 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

A PRIMITIVE USE OF THE ANIMAL MACHINE THAT IS 

STILL IN VOGUE IN MANY EUROPEAN COUNTRIES Frontispiece fy" 

HORSE AND CATTLE POWER Facing p. 32 V" 

CRANES AND DERRICKS " 38 i-"" 

A BELGIAN MILK-WAGON " $6^ 

TWO APPARATUSES FOR THE UTILIZATION OF ANIMAL 

POWER " 60^ 

WINDMILLS OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TYPES .... " 68*^ 

WATER WHEELS " 72 '^ 

HYDRAULIC PRESS AND HYDRAULIC CAPSTAN .... " 76^ 

THOMAS SAVERY's STEAM ENGINE " 86"' 

DIAGRAMS OF EARLY ATTEMPTS TO UTILIZE THE POWER 

OF STEAM " 88'^ 

A MODEL OF THE NEWCOMEN ENGINE " 92 l^ 

watt's EARLIEST TYPE OP PUMPING-ENGINE .... " 961^ 

watt's rotative engine " 100 "^ 

JAMES WATT " 108!^ 

OLD IDEAS AND NEW APPLIED TO BOILER CONSTRUCTION " 1 14 ^^ 

COMPOUND ENGINES " Il8*^ 

ROTARY ENGINES '* 122^ 

THE ORIGINAL PARSONS' TURBINE ENGINE AND THE REC- 
ORD-BREAKING SHIP FOR WHICH IT IS RESPONSIBLE " 128 ^ 

GAS AND OIL ENGINES " 136 ^ 

Am ELECTRIC TRAIN AND THE DYNAMO THAT PROPELS IT " 174 *^ 

[vii] 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



WILDE's separately excited dynamo .... Facing p. 178 ♦^ 

THE EVOLUTION OF THE DYNAMO " l8o*^ 

VIEW IN ONE OF THE POWER HOUSES AT NIAGARA . " l86^ 

ELECTRICAL TRANSFORMERS " igS^ 

THOMAS A. EDISON AND THE DYNAMO THAT GENERATED 

THE FIRST COMMERCIAL INCANDESCENT LIGHT . . " 

A FLINT-AND-STEEL OUTFIT, AND A MINER's STEEL MILL " 
THE LOCOMOTIVE " PUFFING BILLY " AND A MODERN 

COLLIERY TROLLEY " 



[ Viii ] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 



IN the earlier volumes we have been concerned 
with the growth of knowledge. For the most 
part the scientific delvers whose efforts have held 
our attention have been tacitly unmindful, or even ex- 
plicitly contemptuous, of the influence upon practical 
life of the phenomena to the investigation of which 
they have devoted their lives. They were and are 
obviously seekers of truth for the mere love of truth. 

But the phenomena of nature are not dissociated 
in fact, however much we may attempt to localize and 
classify them. And so it chances that even the most 
visionary devotee of abstract science is forever being 
carried into fields of investigation trenching closely 
upon the practicalities of every-day life. A Black 
investigating the laws of heat is preparing the way 
explicitly, however unconsciously, for a Watt with his 
perfected mechanism of the steam engine. 

Similarly a Davy working at the Royal Institution 
with his newly invented batteries, and intent on the 
discovery of new elements and the elucidation of new 
principles, is the direct forerunner of Jablochkoff, 
Brush, and Edison with their commercial revolution 
in the production of artificial light. 

Again Oersted and Faraday, earnestly seeking out 

VOL. VI. 1 [ I ] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

the fundamental facts as to the relations of electricity 
and magnetism, invent mechanisms which, though they 
seem but laboratory toys, are the direct forerunners 
of the modem dynamos that take so large a share in the 
world's work. 

In a word, all along the line there is the closest as- 
sociation between what are commonly called the 
theoretical sciences and what with only partial pro- 
priety are termed the appHed sciences. The linkage 
of one with the other must never be forgotten by 
anyone who would truly apprehend the status of 
those practical sciences which have revolutionized 
the civilization of the nineteenth and twentieth cen- 
turies in its most manifest aspects. 

Nevertheless there is, to casual inspection, a some- 
what radical distinction between theoretical and prac- 
tical aspects of science — ^just as there are obvious 
di£ferences between two sides of a shield. And as 
the theoretical aspects of science have largely claimed 
our attention hitherto, so its practical aspects will be 
explicitly put forward in the pages that follow. In 
the present volume we are concerned with those prim- 
itive appHcations of force through which man early 
learned to add to his working efficiency, and with the 
elaborate mechanisms — turbine wheels, steam engines, 
dynamos— through which he has been enabled to 
multiply his powers until it is scarcely exaggeration 
to say that he has made all Nature subservient to his 
wiU. It is this view which justifies the title of the vol- 
ume, which might with equal propriety have been 
termed the Story of the World's Work. 

[2] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 



MAN AND NATURE 



Y 



^^'^^^OUNG men," said a wise physician in ad- 
dressing a class of graduates in medicine, 
^^you are about to enter the battle of Hfe. 
Note that I say the ^battle' of life. Not a play- 
ground, but a battlefield is before you. It is a hard 
contest — a battle royal. Make no mistake as to that. 
Vour studies here have furnished your equipment; now 
you must go forth each to fight for himseK." 

The same words might be said to every neophyte 
in whatever walk of life. The pursuit of every trade, 
every profession is aJbattle — a struggle for existence 
and for supremacy. Partly it is a battle against fellow 
men; partly against the contending powers of Nature. 
The physician meets rivalry from his brothers; but 
his chief battle is with disease. In the creative and 
manufacturing fields which will chiefly concern us in 
the following volumes, it is the powers of Nature that 
furnish an ever-present antagonism. 

No stone can be lifted above another, to make the 
crudest wall or dwelling, but Nature — represented 
by her power of gravitation — strives at once to pull it 
down again. No structure is completed before the 

[3] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

elements are at work defacing it, preparing its slow 
but certain ruin. Summer heat and winter cold expand 
and contract materials of every kind; rain and wind 
wear and warp and twist; the oxygen of the air gnaws 
into stone and iron alike; — in a word, all the elements 
are at work undoing what man has accomplished. 

THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 

In the field of the agriculturist it is the same story. 
The earth which brings forth its crop of unwholesome 
weeds so bountifully, resists man's approaches when he 
strives to bring it under cultivation. Only by the most 
careful attention can useful grains be made to grow 
where the wildlings swarmed in profusion. Not only 
do wind and rain, blighting heat and withering cold 
menace the crops; but weeds invade the fields, the 
germs of fungoid pests lurk everywhere; and myriad 
insects attack orchard and meadow and grain field 
in devastating legions. 

Similarly the beasts which were so rugged and re- 
sistant while in the wild state, become tender and 
susceptible to disease when made useful by domestica- 
tion. Aforetime they roamed at large, braving every 
temperature and thriving in all weathers. But now 
they must be housed and cared for so tenderly that 
they become, as Thoreau said, the keepers of men, 
rather than kept by men, so much more independent 
are they than their alleged owners. Tender of con- 
stitution, domesticated beasts must be housed, to pro- 
tect them from the blasts in which of yore their forebears 

[4] 



MAN AND NATURE 

revelled; and man must slave day in and day out to 
prepare food to meet the requirements of their pam- 
pered appetites. 

He must struggle, too, to protect them from disease, 
and must care for them in time of illness as sedulously 
as he cares for his ovm kith and kin. Truly the ox 
is keeper of the man, and the seeming conquest that 
man has v^ought has cost him dear. 

But of course the story has another side. After all, 
Nature is not so malevolent as at first glance she seems. 
She has opposed man at every stage of his attempted 
progress; yet at the same time she has supplied him 
all his weapons for waging war upon her. Her great 
power of gravitation opposes every effort he makes; 
yet without that same powder he could do nothing — he 
could not walk or stay upon the earth even; and no 
structure that he builds would hold in place for an 
instant. 

So; too, the wind that smites him and tears at his 
handiwork, may be made to serve the purposes of turn- 
ing his windmills and supplying him with power. 

The water will serve a like purpose in turning his 
mills; and, changed to steam with the aid of Nature's 
store of coal, will make his steam engines and dynamos 
possible. Even the lightning he will harness and make 
subject to his will in the telegraphic currents and 
dynamos. 

And in the fields, the grains which man struggles so 
arduously to produce are after all no thing of his creating. 
They are only adopted products of Nature, which he 
has striven to make serve his purpose by growing them 

[5] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

under artificial conditions. So, too, the domesticated 
beasts are creatures that belong in the wilds and in 
distant lands. Man has brought them, in defiance 
of Nature, to uncongenial climes, and made them serve 
as workers and as food-suppliers where Nature alone 
could not support them. Turn loose the cow and 
the horse to forage for themselves here in the inhospit- 
able north, and they would starve. They survive 
because man helps them to combat the adverse con- 
ditions imposed by Nature, yet no one of them could 
live for an hour were not the vital capacities supplied by 
Nature still in control. 

Everywhere, then, it is the opposing of Nature, up 
to certain limits, with the aid of Nature's own tools, 
that constitutes man's work in the world. Just in 
proportion as he bends the elements to meet his 
needs, transforms the plants and animals, defies and 
exceeds the limitations of primeval Nature — ^just in 
proportion as he conquers Nature, in a word, is he 
civilized. 

Barbaric man is called a child of Nature with full 
reason. He must accept what Nature offers. But 
civilized man is the child grown to adult stature, and 
able in a manner to control, to dominate — if you please 
to conquer — the parent. 

If we were to seek the means by which developing 
man has gradually achieved this conquest, we should 
find it in the single word. Tools; that is to say, machines 
for utilizing the powers of Nature, and, as it were, 
multiplying them for man's benefit. So unique is the 
capacity that man exerts in this direction, that he has 

[6] 



MAN AND NATURE 

been described as '^the tool-making animal." The 
description is absolutely accurate; it is inclusive and 
exclusive. No non-human animal makes any form 
of implement to aid it in performing its daily work; 
and contrariwise every human tribe, however low its 
stage of savagery, makes use of more or less crude 
forms of implements. There must have been a time, 
to be sure, when there existed a man so low in intelli- 
gence that he had not put into execution the idea of 
making even the simplest tool. But the period when 
such a man existed so vastly antedates all records that 
it need not here concern us. For the purpose of classi- 
fying all existing men, and all the tribes of men of 
which history and pre-historic archaeology give us an}' 
record, the definition of man as the tool-making animal 
is accurate and sufl&cient. 

At first thought it might seem that an equally com- 
prehensive definition might describe man as the working 
animal. But a moment's consideration shows the 
fallacy of such a suggestion. Man is, to be sure, the 
animal that works effectively, thanks to the implements 
with which he has learned to provide himself; but he 
shares with all animate creatures the task of laboring 
for his daily necessities. This is indeed a work-a-day 
world, and no creature can live in it without taking 
its share in that perpetual conflict which bodily neces- 
sities make imperative. Most lower animals confine 
their work to the mere securing of food, and to the 
construction of rude habitations. Some, indeed, go 
a step farther and lay up stores of food, in chance bur- 
rows or hollow trees; a few even manufacture rela- 

[7] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

tively artistic and highly effective receptacles, as 
illustrated by the honeycomb made by the bees and their 
allies. Again, certain animals, of which the birds are 
the best representatives, construct temporary struc- 
tures for the purpose of rearing their young that attain 
a relatively high degree of artistic perfection. The 
Baltimore oriole weaves a cloth of vegetable fibre 
that is certainly a wonderful texture to be made with 
the aid of claws and bill alone. It may be doubted 
whether human hands, unaided by implements, could 
dupHcate it. But it is crude enough compared with 
even the coarsest cloth which barbaric races manu- 
facture with the aid of implements. 

So it is with any comparison of animal work with 
the work of man, in whatever field. The crudest 
human endeavor is superior to the best non-human 
efforts; and the explanation is found always in the 
fact that the ingenuity of man has enabled him to find 
artificial aids that add to his power of manipulation. 
So large a share have these artificial aids taken in 
man's evolution, that it has long been customary, in 
studpng the development of civilization, to make the 
use of various types of implements a test of varying 
stages of human progress. 

SCIENCE AND CIVILIZATION 

The student of primitive life assures us, basing his 
statements on the archaeological records, that there was 
a time when the most advanced of mankind had no 
tools made of better material than chipped stone. By 

[8] 



MAN AND NATURE 

common consent that time is spoken of as the Rough 
Stone Age. 

We are told that then in the course of immeasurable 
centuries man learned to polish his stone implements, 
doubtless by rubbing them against another stone, or 
perhaps with the aid of sand, thus producing a new type 
of implement which has given its name to the Age of 
Smooth or PoHshed Stone. 

Then after other long centuries came a time when 
man had learned to smelt the softer metals, and the new 
civilization which now supplanted the old, and, thanks 
to the new implements, advanced upon it immeasurably, 
is called the Age of Bronze. 

At last man learned to accomphsh the wonderful 
feat of smelting the intractable metal, iron, and in so 
doing produced implements harder, sharper, and 
cheaper than his implements of bronze; and when 
this crowning feat had been accomplished, the Age 
of Iron was ushered in. 

By common consent, students of the history of the 
evolution of society accept these successive ages, each 
designated by the t)^e of implements with which the 
world's work was accomplished, as representing real 
and definite stages of human progress, and as needing 
no better definition than that supplied by the different 
types of implements. 

Could the archaeologist trace the stream of human 
progress still farther back toward its source, he would 
find doubtless that there were several great epochal 
inventions preceding the time of the Rough Stone 
Age, each of which was in its way as definitive and as 

[9] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

revolutionary in its effects upon society, as these later 
inventions which we have just named. To attempt 
to define them clearly is to enter the field of uncertainty, 
but two or three conjectures may be hazarded that 
cannot be very wide of the truth. 

It is clear, for example, that if we go back in imagi- 
nation to the very remotest ancestors of man that can 
be called human, we must suppose a vast and revo- 
lutionary stage of progress to have been ushered in by 
the first race of men that learned to make habitual use 
of the simplest implement, such as a mere club. When 
man had learned to wield a club and to throw a stone, 
and to use a stone held in the hand to break the shell 
of a nut, he had attained a stage of culture which augured 
great things for the future. Out of the idea of wielded 
club and hurled stone were to grow in time the ideas 
of hammer and axe and spear and arrow. 

Then there came a time — no one dare guess how 
many thousands of years later — when man learned to 
cover his body with the skin of an animal, and thus 
to become in a measure freed from the thraldom of 
the weather. He completed his enfranchisement by 
learning to avail himself of the heat provided by an 
artificial fire. Equipped with these two marvelous 
inventions he was able to extend the hitherto narrow 
bounds of his dwelling-place, passing northward to 
the regions which at an earlier stage of his development 
he dared not penetrate. Under stress of more exhil- 
arating climatic conditions, he developed new ideals 
and learned to overcome new difficulties; developing 
both a material civilization and the advanced mentality 

[lo] 



MAN AND NATURE 

that is its counterpart, as he doubtless never would 
have done had he remained subject to the more pam- 
pering conditions of the tropics. 

The most important, perhaps, of the new things 
which he was taught by the seemingly adverse condi- 
tions of an inhospitable climate, was to provide for 
the needs of a wandering life and of varying seasons 
by domesticating animals that could afford him an 
ever-present food supply. In so doing he ceased to be 
a mere fisher and hunter, and became a herdsman. 
One other step, and he had conceived the idea of pro- 
viding for himself a supply of vegetable foods, to take 
the place of that which nature had provided so boun- 
tifully in his old home in the tropics. When this idea 
was put into execution man became an agriculturist, and 
had entered upon the high road to civilization. 

All these stages of progress had been entered upon 
prior to the time of which the oldest known remains 
of the cave-dweller give us knowledge. It were idle 
to conjecture the precise sequence in which these earliest 
steps toward civilization were taken, and even more 
idle to conjecture the length of time which elapsed 
between one step and its successor. But all questions 
of precise sequence aside, it is clear that here were 
four or five great ages succeeding one to another, that 
marked the onward and upward progress of our prim- 
eval ancestor before he achieved the stage of devel- 
opment that enabled him to leave permanent records 
of his existence. And — what is particularly signifi- 
cant from our present standpoint — it is equally clear 
that each of the great ages thus vaguely outlined was 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

dependent upon an achievement or an invention that 
facilitated the carrying out of that scheme of never- 
ending work which from first to last has been man's 
portion. How to labor more efficiently, more produc- 
tively; how to produce more of the necessaries and of 
the luxuries that man's physical and mental being 
demands, with less expenditure of toil — that from first 
to last has been the ever-insistent problem. And 
the answer has been found always through the develop- 
ment of some new species of mechanism, some new 
labor-saving device, some ingenious manipulation of 
the powers of Nature. 

If, turning from the hypothetical period of our 
primitive ancestor, we consider the sweep of secure 
and relatively recent history, we shall find that precisely 
the same thing holds. If we contrast the civilization 
of Old Egypt and Babylonia — the oldest civilizations of 
which we have any secure record — with the civiHzation 
of to-day, we shall find that the differences between 
the one and the other are such as are due to new and 
improved methods of accomplishing the world's work. 

Indeed, if we view the subject carefully, it will be- 
come more and more evident that the only real progress 
that the historic period has to show is such as has grown 
directly from the development of new mechanical 
inventions. The more we study the ancient civiliza- 
tions the more we shall be struck with their marvelous 
resemblance, as regards mental life, to the civiHzation 
of to-day. In their moral and spiritual ideals, the 
ancient Egyptians were as brothers to the modem 
Europeans. In philosophy, in art, in literature, the 

[12] 



MAN AND NATURE 

Age of Pericles established standards that still remain 
unexcelled. In all the subtleties of thought, we feel 
that the Greeks had reached intellectual bounds that 
we have not been able to extend. 

But when, on the other hand, we consider the ma- 
terial civilization of the two epochs, we find contrasts 
that are altogether starding. The Httle world of the 
Greeks nestled about the Mediterranean, bounded on 
every side at a distance of a few hundred leagues by a 
terra incognita. The philosophers who had reached 
the confines of the field of thought, had but the narrow- 
est knowledge of the geography of our globe. They 
traversed at best a few petty miles of its surface on 
foot or in carts; and they navigated the Mediterranean 
Sea, or at most coasted out a little way beyond the 
Pillars of Hercules in boats chiefly propelled by oars. 
By dint of great industry they produced a really aston- 
ishing number of books, but the production of each one 
was a long and laborious task, and the aggregate num- 
ber indited during the Age of Pericles in all the world 
was perhaps not greater than an afternoon's output 
of a modem printing press. - 

In a word, these men of the classical period of 
antiquity, great as were their mental, artistic, and 
moral achievements, were as children in those matters 
of practical mechanics upon which the outward evi- 
dences of civilization depend. Should we find a race 
of people to-day in some hitherto unexplored portion 
of the earth — did such unexplored portions still exist — 
living a life comparable to that of the Age of Pericles, we 
should marvel no doubt at their artistic achievements, 

[13] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

while at the same time regarding them as scarcely 
better than barbarians. Indeed this is more than 
unsupported hypothesis; for has it not been difficult 
for the Western world to admit the truly civilized con- 
dition of the Chinese, simply because that highly in- 
tellectual race of Orientals has not kept abreast of the 
Occidental changes in applied mechanics? Say what 
we will, this is the standard which we of the Western 
world apply as the test of civilization. 

If, sweeping over in retrospect the history of the 
world since the time when the Egyptian and Babylonian 
civilizations were at their height, we attempt some such 
classification of the stages of progress as that which 
we a moment ago applied to pre-historic times, we 
shall be led to some rather startling conclusions. In 
the broadest view, it will appear that the age which 
ushered in the historic period continued imbroken 
by the advance of any great revolutionary invention 
throughout the long centuries of pre-Christian antiquity, 
and well into the so-called Middle Ages of our newer 
era. Then came the invention of gunpowder, or at 
least its introduction to the Western world — since the 
Chinaman here lays claim to vague centuries of prece- 
dence. Following hard upon the introduction of 
gunpowder, with its capacity to add to the destructive 
efficiency of man's most sinister form of labor, came 
a mechanism no less epoch-making in a far different 
field — the printing press. 

But even these inventions, great as was their influ- 
ence upon the progress of civilization, can scarcely be 
considered, it seems to me, as taking rank with the 

[14] 



MAN AND NATURE 

great epochal discoveries that gave their names to the 
preceding ages. Nor can any invention of the six- 
teenth or seventeenth century be hailed as really 
ushering in a new era. The invention for which that 
honor was reserved was a development of the eighteenth 
century; and did not come fully to its heritage until 
the early days of the nineteenth century. The inven- 
tion was the application of steam to the purposes of 
mechanics. When this application was made, as wide 
a gap was crossed as that which separated the Stone 
Age from the Age of Metal; then the epoch in which 
the world was living when history begins was brought 
to a close, and a new era, the Age of Steam, was ushered 
in. 

Scarcely had the world begim to adjust itself to the 
new conditions of the Age of Steam, when yet another 
power was made subservient to man's needs, and the 
Age of Steam was supplemented, not to say supplanted, 
by the Age of Electricity. Of course the new progres- 
sive movements did not necessarily imply elimi- 
nation of old conditions; they imply merely the 
subordination of old powers to newer and better ones. 
Stone implements by no means ceased to have utihty 
at once when metal implements came into vogue. 
Bronze long held its own against iron, and still has its 
utility. And iron itself finds but an added sphere of 
usefulness in the Age of Steam and Electricity. 

All great changes are relatively slow. It is only as 
we look back upon them and view them in perspective 
that they seem cataclysmic. Gunpowder did not at 
once supplant the crossbow, and the cannon was long 

[IS] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

held to be inferior to the catapult. The printed book 
did not instantly make its way against the work of the j 
scribe. Neither did the steam engine immediately sup- ! 
plant water power and the direct application of human 
labor. But in each case the new invention virtually rang i 
the death knell of the old method from the hour of its 
inauguration, and the end was no less sure because it 
was delayed. And it requires no great powers of 
divination to foretell that in the coming age, the electric 
dynamo driven by water power may take the place of 
the steam engine. The Age of Steam may pass, with 
only at most a few generations of domination. And 
it is within the possibilities that the Age of Electricity 
will scarcely come into its own before it may be dis- 
placed by an Age of Radio-Activity. To press that 
point, however, would be to enter the field of prophecy, 
which is no part of my present purpose. 

All that I have wished to point out is that for some 
thousands of years after man learned to make imple- 
ments of iron, the industrial world and the human 
civilization that depends upon it, pursued a relatively 
static course, Hke a broad, sluggish current, with no new 
revolutionary discovery to impel it into new channels; 
and that then one revolutionary discovery succeeded 
another with bewildering suddenness, so that we of 
the early days of the twentieth century are farther 
removed, in an industrial way, from our forerunners 
of two hundred years ago, than those children of the 
eighteenth century were from the earliest civilization 
that ever developed on our globe. Indeed, this startling 
contrast would still hold true, were we to consider the 

[i6] 



MAN AND NATURE 

newest era as compassing only the period of a single 
life. There are men living to-day who were bom in 
that epoch when the steam engine was for the first 
time used to turn the wheels of factories. There are 
many men who can well remember the first practical 
application of steam to railway trafi&c. Hosts of men 
can remember when the first commercial message was 
transmitted by electricity along a wire. Even middle- 
aged men recall the first cable message that linked the 
old world with the new. And the appHcation of the 
dynamo to the purposes of the world's work is an affair 
of but yesterday. 

The historian of the future, casting his eye back across 
the long perspective of history, will find civilized man 
pursuing an even and unbroken course across the 
ages from the time of the pyramids of Egypt to about 
the time of the French Revolution. There will be 
no dearth of incident to claim his attention in the way 
of wars and conquests, and changing creeds, and the rise 
and fall of nations, each pursuing virtually the same 
course of growth and decay as all the others. But when 
he comes to the close of the eighteenth century, it will 
not be the social paroxysm of a nation, or the meteoric 
career of a Napoleon that will claim his attention so 
much as the introduction of that new method of utiliz- 
ing the powers of Nature which found its expression in 
the mechanism called the steam engine. 

If the name of any individual stands out as the great 
and memorable one of that epoch of transition, at 
which the static current of previous civilization changed 
suddenly to a Niagara-current of progress, it will be the 

VOL. VII. 2 [171 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

name of the great scientific inventor, rather than that 
of the great military conqueror-— the name of James 
Watt, rather than that of Napoleon. 

The mihtary conqueror had his day of surpassing 
glory and departed, to leave the world only a little 
worse than he found it. But the mechanical inventor 
left a heritage that was to add day by day to the wealth 
and happiness of humanity, supplying miUions of 
artificial hands, and making possible such beneficent 
improvements as no previous age had dreamed of. 
Tasks that human hands had performed slowly, labor- 
iously, and inadequately, were now to be performed 
swiftly, with ease, and well by the artificial hands 
provided with the aid of the new power. Where carts 
drawn by horses had toiled slowly across the land, and 
ships driven by the wind had drifted slowly through 
the waters, massive trains of cars were to hurtle to the 
four comers of the earth with inconceivable speed, 
and floating palaces were to course the waters with 
almost equal defiance to the Hmitations of time and 
space. 

And then there came that still weirder conquest of 
time and space, wrought by the electric current. The 
moment when man first spoke with man from continent 
to continent in defiance of the oceans, marked the 
dawning of that larger day when all mankind shall con- 
stitute one brotherhood and all peoples but a single 
nation. Within a half century the sun of that new 
day has risen well above the horizon, and far sooner 
than even the optimist of to-day dare predict with 
certainty, it seems destined to reach its zenith. 

[18] 



MAN AND NATURE 

But here again we verge upon the dangerous field of 
prophecy. Let us turn from it and cast an eye back 
across the most wonderful of centuries, contrasting 
the conditions of to-day in each of a half-dozen fields of 
the world's work, with the conditions that obtained 
at the close of the eighteenth century. Such a brief 
survey will show us perhaps more vividly than we 
could otherwise be shown, how vast has been the 
progress, how marvelous the development of civiH- 
zation, in the short decades that have elapsed since 
the coming of the Age of Steam. 

Let us pay heed first to the world of the agriculturist. 
Could we turn back to the days of our grandparents, 
we should find farming a very different employment 
from what it is to-day. For the most part the farmer 
operated but a few small fields; if he had thirty or forty 
acres of ploughed land, he found ample employment 
for his capacities. He ploughed his fields with the 
aid of either a yoke of oxen or a team of horses; he 
sowed his grain by hand; he cultivated his com with 
a hoe; he reaped his oats and wheat with a cradle — 
a device but one step removed from a sickle ; he threshed 
his grain with a flail; he ground such portion of it as 
he needed for his own use with the aid of water power 
at a neighboring mill ; and such portion of it as he sold 
was transported to market, be it far or near, in wagons 
that compassed twenty or thirty miles a day at best. 
As regards Hve stock, each farmer raised a few cattle, 
sheep, and hogs, and butchered them to supply his 
own needs, selling the residue to a local dealer who 
supplied the non-agricultural portion of the neigh- 

[19] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

borhood. Any live stock intended for a distant market 
was driven on foot across the country to its destination. 
Each town and city, therefore, drew almost exclusively 
for its supply from the immediately surrounding 
country. 

To-day the small farmer has become almost obsolete, 
and the farms of the eastern states that were the na- 
tion's chief source of supply a century ago are largely 
allowed to lie fallow, it being no longer possible to 
cultivate them profitably in competition with the rich 
farm lands of the middle west. In that new home of 
agriculture, the farm that does not comprise two or 
three himdred acres is considered small; and large 
farms are those that number their acres by thousands. 
The soil is turned by steam ploughs; the grain is 
sown with mechanical seeders and planters; the com 
is cultivated with a horse-drawn machine, having blades 
that do the work of a dozen men; harvesters drawn 
by three or four horses sweep over the fields and leave 
the grain mechanically tied in bundles; the steam 
thresher places the grain in sacks by hundreds of 
bushels a day; and this grain is hurried off in steam 
cars to distant mills and yet more distant markets. 

Meantime the raising of Uve stock has become a 
special department, with which the farmer who deals 
in cereals often has no concern. The cattle roam over 
vast pastures and are herded in the winter for fattening 
in great droves, and protected from the cold in bams 
that, when contrasted with the sheds of the old-time 
farmer, seem almost palatial. When in marketable 
condition, cattle are no longer slaughtered at the farm, 

[20] 



MAN AND NATURE 

but are transported in cars to one of the few great 
centres, chief of which are the stock yards of Chicago 
and of Kansas City. At these centres, slaughter houses 
and meat-packing houses of stupendous magnitude have 
been developed, capable of handling millions of animals 
in a year. From these centres the meat is transported 
in refrigerator cars to the seaboards, and in refrigerator 
ships to all parts of the world. Beef that grew on the 
ranges of the far west may thus be offered for sale in 
the markets of New England villages, at a price that 
prohibits local competition. 

A more radical metamorphosis in agricultural con- 
ditions than all this implies could not well be conceived. 
And when we recall once more that the agricultural con- 
ditions that obtained at the beginning of the nineteenth 
century were closely similar to those that obtained 
in each successive age for a hundred preceding cen- 
turies, we shall gain a vivid idea of the revolutionizing 
effects of new methods of work in the most important 
of industries. It is little wonder that in this short 
time the world has not solved to the satisfaction of 
the economists all the new problems thus so suddenly 
developed. 

Turn now to the manufacturing world. In the days 
of our great-grandparents almost every household was 
a miniature factory where cotton and wool were spun 
and the products were woven into cloth. It was not 
till toward the close of the eighteenth century — just 
at the time when Watt was perfecting the steam engine 
— that Arkwright developed the spinning-frame, and 
his successors elaborated the machinery that made 

[21] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

possible the manufacture of cloth in wholesale quan- 
tities; and the nineteenth century was well under way i 
before the household production of cloth had been 
entirely supplanted by factory production. It is noth- 
ing less than pitiful to contemplate in imagination 
our great-great-grandmothers — and all their forebears 
of the long centuries — drudging away day after day, 
year in and year out, at the ceaseless task of spinning 
and weaving — only to produce, as the output of a life- 
time of labor, a quantity of cloth equivalent perhaps 
to what our perfected machine, driven by steam, and 
manipulated by a factory girl, produces each working 
hour of every day. Similarly, carpets and quilts were 
of home manufacture; so were coats and dresses; and 
shoes were at most the product of the local shoemaker 
around the comer. 

In the kitchen, food was cooked over the coals of 
a great fireplace or in the brick oven connected with 
that fireplace. Meat was supplied from a neigh- 
boring farm; eggs were the product of the house- 
wife's own poultry yard; the son or daughter of the 
farmer milked the cow and drove her to and from the 
pasture; the milk was ^^set" in pans in the cellar — on 
a swinging shelf, preferably, to make it inaccessible to 
the rats; and twice a week the cream was made into 
butter in a primitive chum, the dasher of which was 
operated by the vigorous arm of the housewife herself, 
or by the unwilling arms of some one of her numerous 
progeny. 

To give variety to the dietary, fruits grown in the 
local garden or orchard were preserved, each in its 

[22] 



MAN AND NATURE 

season, by the industrious housewife, and stored away 
in the capacious cellar; where also might be found 
the supply of home-grown potatoes, turnips, carrots, 
parsnips, and cabbages to provide for the needs of the 
winter. Fuel to supply the household needs, both for 
cooking and heating, was cut in the neighboring wood- 
land, and carefully corded in the door-yard, where it 
provided most imcongenial employment for the youth 
of the family after school hours and of a Saturday 
afternoon. 

The ashes produced when this wood was burned 
in the various fireplaces, were not wasted, but were 
carefully deposited in barrels, from which in due course 
lye was extracted by the simple process of pouring 
water over the contents of the barrel. Meantime 
scraps of fat from the table were collected throughout 
the winter and preserved with equal care; and in due 
course on some leisure day in the springtime — heaven 
knows how a leisure day was ever found in such a scheme 
of domestic economy] — the lye drawn from the ash- 
barrels and the scraps of fat were put into a gigantic 
kettle, imdemeath which a fire was kindled; with the 
result that ultimately a supply of soft soap was provided 
the housewife, with which her entire estabHshment, 
progeny included, could be kept in a state of relative 
cleanness. 

The reader of these pages has but to cast his eye 
about him in the household in which he lives, and 
contrast the conditions just depicted with those of his 
e very-day life, to reaUze what change has come over 
the aspects of household economy in the course of a 

[23] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

short century. Nor need he be told in each of the 
various departments of which the activities are here 
outUned, that the changes which he observes have been 
due to the appHcation of machinery in all the essential 
lines of work in question. We need not pause to detail 
the multitudinous devices for the economy of household 
labor which owe their origin to the same agency. There 
still remains, to be sure, enough of drudgery in the task 
of the housewife; yet her most strenuous day seems a 
mere playtime in comparison with the average day of 
her maternal forebear of three or four generations ago. 

But we must not here pause for further outlines of 
a subject which it is the purpose of this and succeeding 
volumes to explicate in detail. All our succeeding 
chapters vdll but make it more clear how marvelous 
are the elaborations of method and of mechanism 
through which the world's work of to-day is accom- 
plished. We shall consider first the mechanical prin- 
ciples that underlie work in general, passing on to some 
of the principal methods of application through which 
the powers of Nature are made available. We shall 
then take up in succession the different fields of industry. 
We shall ask how the work of the agriculturist is done 
in the modem world; how the multitudinous lines 
of manufacture are carried out; how transportation 
is effected; we shall examine the modus operandi of 
the transmission of ideas; we shall even consider that 
destructive form of labor which manifests itself in the 
production of mechanisms of warfare. As we follow 
out the stories of the all-essential industries we shall 
be led to realize more fully perhaps than we have done 

[24] 



MAN AND NATURE 

before, the meaning of work in its relations to human 
development ; and in particular the meaning of modem 
work, as carried out with the aid of modern mechanical 
contrivances, in its relations to modern civihzation. 

The full force of these relations may best be permitted 
to unfold itself as the story proceeds. There is, how- 
ever, one fundamental principle which I would ask 
the reader to bear constantly in mind, as an aid to the 
full appreciation of the importance of our subject. It is 
that in considering the output of the worker we have 
constantly to do with one form or another of property, 
and that property is the very foundation-stone of civih- 
zation. 'Tt is impossible," says Morgan, in his work 
on Ancient Society, '^to overestimate the influence of 
property in the civihzation of mankind. It was the 
power that brought the Aryan and Semitic nations out 
of barbarism into civihzation. The growth of the idea 
of property in the human mind commenced in feeble- 
ness and ended in becoming its master passion. Gov- 
ernments and laws are instituted with primary reference 
to its creation, protection, and enjoyment. It intro- 
duced human slavery in its production; and, after 
the experience of several thousand years, it caused the 
abohtion of slavery upon the discovery that the freeman 
was a better property-making machine." If, then, we 
recall that without labor there is no property, we shall 
be in an attitude of mind to appreciate the importance 
of our subject; we shall realize, somewhat beyond the 
boimds of its more tangible and sordid relations, the 
essential dignity, the fundamental importance — ^in a 
word, the true meaning — of Work. 

[25] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE ji 

Undoubtedly there is a modem tendency to accept 
this view of the dignity of physical labor. At any rate, 
we differ from the savage in thinking it more fitting n 
that man should toil than that his wife should labor |! 
to support him—though it cannot be denied that even 
now the number of physical toilers among women jl 
greatly exceeds the number of such toilers among men. '' 
But in whatever measure we admit this attitude of mind, 
there can be no question that it is exclusively a modem 
attitude. Time out of mind, physical labor has been 
distasteful to mankind, and it is a later development 
of philosophy that appreciates the beneficence of the 
task so little relished. 

The barbarian forces his wife to do most of the work, 
and glories in his own freedom. Early civilization 
kept conquered foes in thraldom, developing an heredi- 
tary body of slaves, whose function it was to do the 
physical work. 

The Hebrew explained the necessity for labor as a { 
curse imposed upon Father Adam and Mother Eve. 
Plato and Aristotle, voicing the spirit of the Greeks, 
considered manual toil as degrading. 

To-day we hear much of the dignity of labor; but 
if we would avoid cant we must admit that now — 
scarcely less than in all the olden days — the physical 
toiler is such because he cannot help himself. Few 
indeed are the manual laborers who know any other 
means of getting their daily bread than that which they 
employ. The most strenuous advocates of the strenu- 
ous life are not themselves tillers of the soil or workers 
in factories or machine shops. 

[26] 



MAN AND NATURE 

The farm youth of intelligence does not remain a 
farmer; he goes to the city, and we find him present!}^ 
at the head of a railroad or a bank, or practising law 
or medicine. The more intelligent laborer becomes 
finally a foreman, and no longer handles the axe or 
sledge. We should think it grotesque were we to see 
a man of intellectual power obstinately following a 
pursuit that cost him habitual physical toil. When 
now and then a Tolstoi offers an exception to this 
rule, we feel that he is at least eccentric; and we may 
be excused the doubt whether he would follow the 
manual task cheerfully if he did not know that he could 
at any moment abandon it. It is because he knows 
that the world understands him to be only a dilettante 
that he rejoices in his task. 

After all, then, judged by the modem practice, 
rather than by the philosopher's precept, the old Hebrew 
and Greek ideas were not so far wrong. Using the 
poetical language which was so native to them, it might 
be said that the necessity for physical labor is a curse 
— a disgrace. 

A partial explanation of this may be found in the 
fact that the most imcongenial tasks are also the worst 
paid, while the congenial tasks command the high 
emoluments. Generally speaking there is no distinc- 
tion between one laborer and another in the same 
field — except where the eminently fair method of piece 
work can be employed. Even the skilled laborer is 
usually paid by the day, and the amount he is to re- 
ceive is commonly fixed by a Union regardless of his 
efficiency as compared with other laborers of the same 

[27] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

class. And there is no possibility of his receiving any 
such sums as the man who plans the work, but does 
nothing with his own hands. 

It has always been so. Just as "those who think 
must govern those that toil," so the thinker must com- 
mand the high reward. Partly this is because man, 
considered as a mere toiler, is so relatively inefficient a 
worker. When he strives to work with his hands, his 
effort is but a pitiful one; he can by no possibility 
compete (as regards mere quantity of labor) with the 
ox and the horse. He is impatient of his own puerile 
efforts. It is only when he brings the products of 
ingenuity to his aid that he is able to show his superior- 
ity, and to justify his own egotism. So it is that in 
every age he has striven to find means of adding to 
his feeble powers of body through the use of his rela- 
tively gigantic powers of mind. And in proportion as 
he thus is able to "make his head work for his hands" 
as the saying goes, he verges toward the heights of civil- 
ization. To accomplish this more and more fully has 
ever been the task of science as appHed to the industries. 

It will be our object in the ensuing chapters to inquire 
how far science has accomplished the protean task 
thus set for it. We shall see that much has been done ; 
but that much still remains to be done. In proportion 
as the problems are imsolved, science is reproached 
for its shortcomings — and stimulated to new efforts. 

In proportion as labor has been minimized and pro- 
duction increased — in just that proportion has science 
justified itself; and in the same proportion has the 
Conquest of Nature been carried toward completion. 

[28] 



II 



HOW WORK IS DONE 



THE word energy implies capacity to do work. 
Work, considered in the abstract, consists in 
the moving of particles of matter against some 
opposing force, or in aid of previously acting forces. In 
the last analysis, all energy manifests itself either as a 
push or as a pull. But there is a modification of push 
and pull which is familiar to everyone in practice under 
the name of prying. Illustrations may be seen on every 
hand, as when a workman pries up a stone, or when a 
housewife pries up a tack with the aid of a hammer. 
The principle here involved is that of the lever — a princi- 
ple which in its various practical modifications is every- 
where utiHzed in mechanics. Very seldom indeed is 
the direct push or pull utilized; since the modified 
push or pull, as represented by the lever in its various 
modifications of pulley, ratchet-wheel, and the like, 
has long been known to meet the needs of practical 
mechanics. 

The very earliest primitive man who came to use any 
implement whatever, though it were only a broken 
stick, must have discovered the essential principle 
of the lever, though it is hardly necessary to add that he 
did not know his discovery by any such high-sounding 

[29] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

title. What he did know, from practical experience, 
was that with the aid of a stick he could pry up stones 
or logs that were much too heavy to be lifted without 
this aid. 

This practical knowledge no doubt sufficed for a 
vast number of generations of men who used the lever 
habitually, without making specific study of the rela- 
tions between the force expended, the lengths of the 
two ends of the lever, and the weight raised. Such 
specific experiments were made, however, more than 
two thousand years ago by the famous Syracusan, Archi- 
medes. He discovered — or if some one else had dis- 
covered it before him, he at least recorded and so gains 
the credit of discovery — the specific laws of the lever, 
and he also pointed out that levers, all acting on the 
same principle, may be different as to their practical 
mechanism in three ways. 

First, the fulcrum may lie between the power and the 
weight, as in the case of the balance with which we 
were just experimenting. This is called a lever of 
the first class, and familiar illustrations of it are fur- 
nished by the poker, steelyard, or a pair of scissors. 
The so-called extensor muscles of the body — those 
for example, that cause the arm to extend — act on the 
bones in such a way as to make them levers of this 
first class. 

The second type of lever is that in which the 
weight Hes between the force and the fulcrum, as 
illustrated by the wheelbarrow, or by an ordinary door. 

In the third class of levers the power is applied be- 
tween weight and fulcrum, as illustrated by a pair of 

[30] 



HOW WORK IS DONE 

tongs, the treadle of a lathe, or by the flexor muscles of 
the arm, operating upon the bones of the forearm. 

But in each case, let it be repeated, precisely the same 
principles are involved, and the same simple law of the 
relations between positions of power, weight, and ful- 
crum are maintained. The practical result is always 
that a weight of indefinite size may be moved by a power 
indefinitely long. If one arm of the lever is ten times 
as long as the other, the power of one pound will lift 
or balance a ten-pound weight; if the one arm is a 
thousand times as long as the other the power of one 
pound will lift or balance a thousand pounds. If 
the long arm of the lever could be made some mil- 
lions of miles in length, the power that a man could 
exert would balance the earth. 

How fully Archimedes realized the possibilities of 
the lever is illustrated in the classical remark attributed 
to him, that, had he but a fulcrum on which to place 
his lever, he could move the world. As otherwise 
quoted, the remark of Archimedes was that, had he 
a place on which to stand, he could move the world, 
a remark which even more than the other illustrates 
the full and acute appreciation of the laws of motion; 
since, as we have already pointed out, action and re- 
action being equal, the most infinitesimal push must be 
considered as disturbing even the largest body. 

Tremendous as is the pull of gravity by which the 
earth is held in its orbit, yet the smallest push, steadily 
applied from the direction of the sun, would suffice 
ultimately to disturb the stabiHty of our earth's motion, 
and to push it gradually through a spiral course farther 

[31] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

and farther away from its present line of elliptical flight. 
Or if, on the other hand, the persistent force were ap- 
plied from the side opposite the sun, it would suffice 
ultimately to carry the earth in a spiral course until it 
plunged into the sun itself. Indeed it has been ques- 
tioned in modem times whether it may not be possible 
that precisely this latter effect is gradually being 
accomplished, through the action of meteorites, some 
millions of which fall out of space into the earth's 
atmosphere every day. If these meteorites were 
uniformly distributed through space and flying in 
every direction, the fact that the sun screens the earth 
from a certain number of them, would make the aver- 
age number falling on the side away from the sun 
greater, and thus would in the course of ages produce 
the result just suggested. All that could save our earth 
from such a fate would be the operation of some coun- 
teracting force. Such a counteracting force is perhaps 
found in solar radiation. It may be added that the 
distribution of meteorites in space is probably too 
irregular to make their influence on the earth predicable 
in the present state of science ; but the principle involved 
is no less sure. 

WHEELS AND PULLEYS 

Returning from such theoretical appHcations of the 
principle of motion, to the practicaHties of every-day 
mechanisms, we must note some of the applications 
through which the principle of the lever is made avail- 
able. Of these some of the most familiar are wheels, and 
the various modifications of wheels utihzed in pulleys 

[32] 



HOW WORK IS DONE 

and in cogged and bevelled gearings. A moment's 
reflection will make it clear that the wheel is a lever 
of the first class, of which the axle constitutes the ful- 
crum. The spokes of the wheel being of equal length, 
weights and forces applied to opposite ends of any diame- 
ter are, of course, in equihbrium. It follows that when 
a wheel is adjusted so that a rope may be run about it, 
constituting a simple pulley, a mechanism is developed 
which gives no gain in power, but only enables the 
operator to change the direction of application of 
power. In other words, pound weights at either end 
of a rope passed about a simple pulley are in equiHbrium 
and will balance each other, and move through equal 
distances in opposite directions. 

If, however, two or more pulley wheels are connected, 
to make the familiar apparatus of a compound pulley, 
we have accompKshed by an interesting mechanism a 
virtual application of the principle of the long and 
short arm of the lever, and the relations between the 
weight at the loose end of the rope and the weight at- 
tached to the block which constitutes virtually the short 
end of the lever, may be varied indefinitely, according 
to the number of pulley- wheels that are used. A 
pound weight may be made to balance a thousand- 
pound weight; but, of course, our familiar principle 
still holding, the pound weight must move through 
a distance of a thousand feet in order to move a thousand- 
pound weight through a distance of one foot. Familiar 
illustrations of the application of this principle may be 
seen on every hand ; as when, for example, a piano or a 
safe is raised to the upper window of a building by the 

voL.vn.-3 [33] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

efforts of men whose power, if directly expended, would 
be altogether inefficient to stir the weight. 

The pulley was doubtless invented at a much later 
stage of human progress than the simple lever. It 
was, however, well known to the ancients. It was 
probably brought to its highest state of practical per- 
fection by Archimedes, whose experiments are famous 
through the narrative of Plutarch. It will be recalled 
that Archimedes amazed the Syracusan general by con- 
structing an apparatus that enabled him, sitting on 
shore, to drag a ponderous galley from the water. 
Plutarch does not describe in detail the apparatus with 
which this was accompHshed, but it is obvious from his 
description of what took place, that it must have been 
a system of pulleys. 

It will be observed that the pulley is a mechanism 
that enables the user to transmit power to a distance. 
But this indeed is true in a certain sense of every form 
of lever. Numberless other contrivances are in use 
by which power is transmitted, through utilization of 
the same principle of the lever, either through a short 
or through a relatively long distance. A familiar illus- 
tration is the windlass, which consists of a cylinder 
rotating on an axis propelled by a long handle, a rope 
being wound about the cylinder. This is a lever of 
the second class, the axis acting as fulcrum, and the 
rope operating about the circumference of the cylinder 
typifying the weight, which may be actually at a con- 
siderable distance, as in the case of the old-fashioned 
well with its windlass and bucket, or of the simple form 
of derrick sometimes called a sheerlegs. 

[34] 



HOW WORK IS DONE 

OTHER MEANS OF TRANSMITTING POWER 

Power is transmitted directly from one part of a 
machine to another, in the case of a great variety of 
machines, with the aid of cogged gearing wheels of 
various sizes. The modifications of detail in the appli- 
cation of these wheels may be almost infinite, but the 
principle involved is always the same. The case of two 
wheels toothed about the circumference, the teeth of 
the two wheels fitting into one another, illustrates the 
principle involved. A consideration of the mechanism 
will show that here we have virtually a lever fixed at 
both ends, represented by the radii of the two wheels, 
the power being applied through the axle of one wheel, 
and the weight, for purposes of calculation, being rep- 
resented by the pressure of the teeth of one wheel upon 
those of the other. So this becomes a lever of the 
second class, and the relations of power between the 
two wheels are easily calculated from the relative 
lengths of the radii. If, for example, one radius is 
twice as long as the other, the transmission of power 
will be, obviously, in the proportion of two to one, and 
meantime the distance traversed by the circumference 
of one wheel will be twice as great as that traversed by 
the other. 

A modification of the toothed wheel is furnished by 
wheels which may be separated by a considerable dis- 
tance, and the circumferences of which are connected 
by a belt or by a chain. The principle of action here 
is precisely the same, the belt or chain serving merely 
as a means of lengthening out our lever. The relative 

[35] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

sizes of the wheels, and not the length of the belt or 
chain, is the determining factor as regards the relative 
forces required to make the wheels revolve. 

It is obvious all along, of course, since action and 
reaction are equal, that all of the relations in question 
are reciprocal. When, for example, we speak of a 
pound weight on the long end of a lever balancing a ten- 
poimd weight on the short end, it is equally appropriate 
to speak of the ten-pound weight as balancing the one- 
poimd weight. Similarly, when power is applied to 
the lever, it may be appHed at either end. Ordinarily, 
to be sure, the power is appHed at the long end, since 
the object is to lift the heavy weight; but in compHcated 
machinery it quite as often happens that these condi- 
tions are reversed, and then it becomes desirable to 
apply strong power to the short end of the lever, in 
order that the relatively small weight may be carried 
through the long distance. In the inter-relations of 
gearing wheels, such conditions very frequently obtain, 
practical ends being met by a series of wheels of differ- 
ent sizes. But the single rule, already so often out- 
lined, everywhere holds — ^wherever there is gain of 
power there is loss of distance, and we can gain distance 
only by losing power. The words gain and loss in this 
appHcation are in a sense misnomers, since, as we have 
already seen, gain and loss are only apparent, but 
their convenience of appHcation is obvious. 

A famihar case in which there is first loss of speed 
and gain of power, and then gain of speed at the ex- 
pense of power in the same mechanism, is furnished 
by the bicycle, where (i) the crank shaft turns the 

[36] 



HOW WORK IS DONE 

sprocket wheel that constitutes a lever of the second 
class with gain of power; where (2) power is further 
augmented through transmission from the relatively 
large sprocket wheel to the small sprocket of the axle; 
and where (3) there is great loss of power and corre- 
sponding gain of speed in transmitting the force from 
the small sprocket wheel at the axle to the rubber rim 
of the bicycle proper, this last transmission representing 
a lever of the third class. The net gain of speed is 
tangibly represented by the difference in distance 
traversed by the man's feet in revolving the pedals, 
and the actual distance covered by the bicycle. 

INCLINED PLANES AND DERRICKS 

A less obvious application of the principle of recip- 
rocal equivalence of distance and weight is furnished 
by the inclined plane, a familiar mechanism with the 
aid of which a great gain of power is possible. The in- 
clined plane, like the lever, has been known from re- 
motest antiquity. Its utility was probably discovered 
by almost the earliest builders. Diodorus Siculus 
tells us that the great pyramids of Egypt were con- 
structed with the aid of inclined planes, based on a 
foundation of earth piled about the pyramids. Dio- 
dorus, living at a period removed by some thousands of 
years from the day of the building of the pyramids, may 
or may not have voiced and recorded an authentic 
tradition, but we may well beHeve that the principle 
of the inclined plane was largely drawn upon by the 
mechanics of old Egypt, as by later peoples. 

[37] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

The law of the inclined plane is that in order to 
establish equilibrium between two weights, the one 
must be to the other as the height of the inclined plane 
is to its length. The steeper the inclined plane, there- 
fore, the less will be the gain in power; a mechanical 
principle which familiar experience or the simplest 
experiment will readily corroborate. 

In its elemental form the inclined plane is not used 
very largely in modem machinery, but its modified 
form of the wedge and the screw have more utility. 
The screw, indeed, which is obviously an inclined 
plane adjusted spirally about a cylinder or a cone, is 
famihar to everyone, and is constantly utilized in ap- 
plying power. 

The crane or derrick furnishes a familiar but relatively 
elaborate illustration of a mechanism for the trans- 
mission of power, in which all the various devices 
hitherto referred to are combined, without the intro- 
duction of any new principle. 

Derricks have been employed from a very early day. 
The battering-rams of the ancient Egyptians and 
Babylonians, for example, were virtually derricks; and 
no doubt the same people used the device in raising 
stones to build their temples and city walls, and in 
putting into position such massive sculptures as the 
obelisks of Egypt and the monster graven bulls and 
lions of Nineveh and Babylon. 

The modem derrick, made of steel, and operated 
by steam or electricity, capable of lifting tons, yet 
absolutely obedient to the hand of the engineer, is a 
really wonderful piece of mechanism. A steam-scoop, 

[38] 




CRANES AND DERRICKS. 



The^ upper figure shows a floating derrick, the lower right-hand figure a combined derrick 
and weighing machine, and the lower left-hand figure a so-called sheerlegs, which is a 
simple derrick and windlass operated bv hand or bv steam power with the aid of com- 



HOW WORK IS DONE 

for example, excavating a gravel bank, seems almost 
a thing of intelligence ; as it gores into the bank scooping 
up perhaps a half ton of earth, its upward sweeping head 
reminds one of an angry bull. Then as it swings lei- 
surely about and discharges its load at just the right spot 
into an awaiting car, its hinged bottom swings back 
and forth two or three times before closing, with curious 
resemblance to the jaw of a dog; the similarity being 
heightened by the square bull-dog-headed shape of 
the scoop itself. Yet this remarkable contrivance, with 
all its massive steel beams and chains and cog wheels, 
employs no other principles than the simple ones of 
lever and pulley and inclined plane that we have just 
examined. The power that must be applied to produce 
a given effect may be calculated to a nicety. The 
capacities of the machine are fully predetermined in 
advance of its actual construction. But of course this 
is equally true of every other form of power-transmitter 
with which the modem mechanical engineer has to 
deal. 

FRICTION 

In making such calculations, however, there is an 
additional element which the engineer must consider, 
but which we have hitherto disregarded. In all methods 
of transmission of power, and indeed in all cases of 
the contact of one substance with another, there is an 
element of loss through friction. This is due to the fact 
that no substance is smooth except in a relative sense. 
Even the most highly poHshed glass or steel, when 
viewed under the microscope, presents a surface covered 

[39] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

with indentations and rugosities. This graniilar sur- 
face of even seemingly smooth objects, is easily visu- 
alized through the analogy of numberless substances 
that are visibly rough. Yet the vast practical impor- 
tance of this roughness is seldom considered by the 
casual observer. In point of fact, were it not for the 
roughened surface of all materials with which we come 
in contact, it would be impossible for any animal or 
man to walk, nor could we hold anything in our hands. 
Anyone who has attempted to handle a fish, particu- 
larly an eel, fresh from the water, will recall the diffi- 
culty with which its slippery surface was held; but it 
may not occur to everyone who has had this experience 
that all other objects would similarly slip from the hand, 
had their surfaces a similar smoothness. The sHppery 
character of the eel is, of course, due in large part to 
the relatively smooth surface of its skin, but partly 
also to the lubricant with which it is covered. Any 
substance may be rendered somewhat smoother by 
proper lubrication; it is necessary, however, that the 
lubricant should be something which is not absorbed 
by the substance. Thus, wood is given increased 
friction by being moistened with oil, but, on the other 
hand, is made sHppery if covered with graphite, soap, 
or any other fatty substances that it does not absorb. 

Recalling the more or less roughened surface of all 
objects, the source of friction is readily understood. 
It depends upon the actual jutting of the roughened 
surfaces, one upon the other. It virtually constitutes 
a force acting in opposition to the motion of any two 
surfaces upon each other. As between any different 

[40] 



HOW WORK IS DONE 

materials, under given conditions, it varies with the 
pressure, in a dej&nite and measurable rate, which is 
spoken of as the coefficient of friction for the particular 
substances. It is very much greater where the two 
substances slide over one another than where the one 
rolls upon the other, as in the case of the wheel. The 
latter illustrates what is called rolHng friction, and in 
practical mechanics it is used constantly to decrease 
the loss — as, for example, in the wheels of wagons and 
cars. The use of lubricants to decrease friction is 
equally famiHar. Without them, as everyone knows, it 
would be impossible to run any wheel continuously 
upon an axle at high speed for more than a very brief 
period, owing to the great heat developed through 
friction. Friction is indeed a perpetual antagonist of 
the mechanician, and we shall see endless illustrations 
of the methods he employs to minimize its influence. 
On the other hand, we must recall that were it rendered 
absolutely nil, his machinery would all be useless. 
The car wheel, for example, would revolve indefinitely 
without stirring the train, were there absolutely no 
friction between it and the rail. 

AVAILABLE SOURCES OF ENERGY 

We have pointed out that every body whatever con- 
tains a certain store of energy, but it has equally been 
called to our attention that, in the main, these stores 
of energy are not available for practical use. There 
are, however, various great natural repositories of 
energy upon which man is able to draw. The 

[41] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

chief of these are, first, the muscular energy of 
man himself and of animals; second, the energy of 
air in motion; third, the energy of water in motion 
or at an elevation; and fourth, the molecular and 
atomic energies stored in coal, wood, and other com- 
bustible materials. To these we should probably 
add the energy of radio-active substances — a form of 
energy only recently discovered and not as yet available 
on a large scale, but which may sometime become so, 
when new supplies of radio-active materials have been 
discovered. It will be the object of succeeding chapters 
to point out the practical ways in which these various 
stores of energy are drawn upon and made to do work 
for man's benefit. 



[42] 



Ill 

THE ANIMAL MACHINE 

THE muscular system is not only the oldest 
machine in existence, but also the most 
complex. Moreover, it is otherwise entitled to 
precedence, for even to-day, in this so-called age of 
steam and electricity, the muscular system remains by 
far the most important of all machines. In the United 
States alone there are some twenty miUion horses doing 
work for man ; and of course no machine of any sort is 
ever put in motion or continues indefinitely in operation 
without aid suppHed by human muscles. All in all, then, 
it is impossible to overestimate the importance of this 
muscular machine which is at once the oldest and the 
most lasting of all systems of utilizing energy. 

The physical laws that govern the animal machine 
are precisely similar to those that are appHed to other 
mechanisms. All the laws that have been called to 
our attention must therefore be understood as applying 
fully to the muscular mechanism. But in addition 
to these the muscular system has certain laws or methods 
of action of its own, some of which are not very clearly 
understood. 

The prime mystery concerning the muscle is its 
wonderful property of contracting. For practical pur- 
poses we may say that it has no other property; the 

[43] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

sole fimction of the muscle is to contract. It can, of 
course, relax, also, to make ready for another con- 
traction, but this is the full extent of its activities. A 
microscopic examination of the muscle shows that it is 
composed of minute fibres, each of which on contraction 
swells up into a spindle shape. A mass of such fibres 
aggregated together constitutes a muscle, and every 
muscle is attached at either extremity, by means of a 
tendon, to a bone. Both extremities of a muscle are 
never attached to the same bone — otherwise the muscle 
would be absolutely useless. Usually there is only a 
single bone between the two ends of a muscle, but in 
exceptional cases there may be more. As a rule, the 
main body of a muscle lies along the bone to which 
one end of it is attached, the other end of the muscle 
being attached to the contiguous bone placed not far 
from the point. The first bone, then, serves as a ful- 
crum on which the second bone moves as a lever, and, 
as already pointed out, the familiar laws of the lever 
operate here as fully as in the inanimate world. But 
a moment's reflection will make it clear that the object 
effected by this mechanism is the increase of motion 
with relative loss of energy. In other words, the muscu- 
lar force is applied to the short end of the lever, and a 
far greater expenditure of force is required when the 
muscle contracts than the power externally manifested 
would seem to indicate. 

A moment's consideration of the mechanism of the 
arm, having regard to the biceps muscle which flexes 
the elbow, wiU make this clear. If a weight is held 
in the hand it is perhaps twelve inches from the elbow. 

[44] 



THE .\NIMAL MACHINE 

If, while holding the weight, you will grasp the elbow 
with the other hand, you will feel the point of attach- 
ment of the biceps, and discover that it does not seem 
to be, roughly speaking, more than about an inch from 
the joint. Obviously, then, if you are lifting a pound 
weight, the actual equivalent of energy expended by 
the contracting biceps must be twelve pounds. But, 
in the meantime, when the pound weight in your hand 
moves through the space of one inch, the muscle has 
contracted by one-twelfth of an inch; and you may 
sweep the weight through a distance of two feet by utiliz- 
ing the two-inch contraction, which represents about 
the capacity of the muscle. 

A similar consideration of the muscles of the legs will 
show how the muscular system which is susceptible of 
but trifling variation in size, gives to the animal great 
locomotive power. With the aid of a series of levers, 
represented by the bones of our thighs, legs, and feet, 
we are able to stride along, covering tliree or four feet 
at each step, while no set of the muscles that effect this 
propulsion varies in length by more than two or three 
inches. It appears, then, that the muscular system 
gives a marvelous illustration of capacity for storing 
energy in a compact form and utilizing it for the de- 
velopment of motion. 

THE TWO TYPES OF MUSCLES 

The muscles of animals and men alike are divided into 
two systems, one called volimtary, the other involuntary. 
The voluntary muscles, as their name implies, are sub- 

[45] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

ject to the influence of the will, and under ordinary 
conditions contract in response to the voluntary nervous 
impulses. Certain sets of them, indeed, as those 
having to do with respiration, have developed a ten- 
dency to rhythmical action through long use, and 
ordinarily perform their functions without voluntary 
guidance. Their fimction may, however, become 
voluntary when attention is directed toward it, and is 
then subject to the action of the will within certain 
bounds. Should a voluntary attempt be made, how- 
ever, to prevent their action indefinitely, the so-called 
reflex mechanism presently asserts itself. All of which 
may be easily attested by anyone who will attempt to 
stop breathing. All systems of voluntary muscles 
are subject to the influence of habit, and may assume 
activities that are only partially recognized by conscious- 
ness. As an illustration in point, the muscles involved 
in walking come, in the case of every adult, to perform 
their function without direct guidance of the will. 
Such was not the case, however, in the early stage of 
their development, as the observation of any child 
learning to walk will amply demonstrate. In the case 
of animals, however, even those muscles are so imder 
the impress of hereditary tendencies as to perform their 
functions spontaneously almost from the moment of 
birth. These, however, are physiological details that 
need not concern us here. It suffices to recall that the 
voluntary muscles may be directed by the will, and 
indeed are always under what may be termed sub- 
conscious direction, even when the conscious attention 
is not directed to them. 

[46] 



THE ANIMAL MACHINE 

The strictly involuntary muscles, however, are placed 
absolutely beyond control of the will. The most im- 
portant of these muscles are those that constitute the 
heart and the diaphragm, and that enter into the 
substance of the walls of blood vessels, and of the 
abdominal organs. It is obvious that the functioning 
of these important organs could not advantageously be 
left to the direction of the will; and so, in the long 
course of evolution they have learned, as it were, to 
take care of themselves, and in so doing to take care 
of the organism, to the life of which they are so abso- 
lutely essential. As the physiologist views the matter, 
no organism could have developed which did not 
correspondingly develop such involuntary action of 
the vital organs. It will be seen that the involuntary 
muscles differ from the volimtary muscles in that they 
are not connected with bones. Instead of being 
thus attached to solid levers, they are annular in struc- 
ture, and in contracting \drtually change the size of the 
ring which their substance constitutes. Each fibre 
in contracting may be thought of as pulling against 
other fibres, instead of against a bony surface, and the 
joint action changes the size of the organ, as is obvious 
in the pulsing of the heart. 

Though the rhythmical contractions of the involuntary 
muscles are independent of voluntary control, it must 
not be supposed that they are independent of the con- 
trol of the central nervous mechanism. On the con- 
trary, the nerve supply sent out from the brain to the 
heart and to the abdominal organs is as plentiful and as 
important as that sent to the voluntary muscles. There 

[47] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

is a centre in the brain scarcely larger than the head 
of a pin, the destruction of which will cause the heart 
instantly to cease beating forever. From this centre, 
then, and from the other centres of the brain, impulses 
are constantly sent to the involuntary muscles, which 
determine the rate of activity. Nor are these centres 
absolutely independent of the seat of consciousness, as 
anyone will admit who recalls the varied changes in 
the heart's action under stress of varying emotions. 

That the volimtary muscles are controlled by the 
central nervous mechanism needs no proof beyond 
the appeal to our personal experiences of every moment. 
You desire some object that lies on the table in front of 
you, and immediately your hand, thanks to the elaborate 
muscular mechanism, reaches out and grasps it. And 
this act is but typical of the thousand activities that 
make up our every-day life. Everyone is aware that 
the channel of communication between the brain and 
the muscular system is found in a system of nerves, 
which it is natural now-a-days to liken to a system of 
telegraph wires. We speak of the impulse generated 
in the brain as being transmitted along the nerves to 
the muscle, causing that to contract. We are even able 
to measure the speed of transfer of such an impulse. 
It is foxmd to move with relative slowness, compassing 
only about one hundred and twelve feet per second, 
being in this regard very unHke the electric current with 
which it is so often compared. But the precise nature 
of this impulse is unknown. Its effect, however, is 
made tangible in the muscular contraction which it 
is its sole purpose to produce. The essential influence 

[48] 



THE ANIMAL MACHINE 

of the nerve impulse in the transaction is easily de= 
monstrable; for if the nerve cord is severed, as often 
happens in accidents, the muscle suppHed by that 
nerve immediately loses its power of voluntary con- 
traction. It becomes paralyzed, as the saying is. 

THE NATURE OF MUSCULAR ACTION 

Paying heed, now, to the muscle itself, it must be 
freely admitted that, in the last analysis, the activities 
of the substance are as mysterious and as inexpHcable 
as are those involved in the nervous mechanism. It is 
easy to demonstrate that what we have just spoken of 
as a muscle fibre consists in reality of a little tube of 
liquid protoplasm, and that the change in shape of 
this protoplasm constitutes the contraction of which 
we are all along speaking. But just what molecular 
and atomic changes are involved in this change of form 
of the protoplasm, we cannot say. We know that the 
power to contract is the one imiversal attribute of living 
protoplasm. This power is equally wonderful and 
equally inexplicable, whether manifested in the case 
of the muscle cell or in the case of such a formless 
single-celled creature as the amoeba. When we know 
more of molecular and atomic force, we may perhaps 
be able to form a mental picture of what goes on in 
the structure of protoplasm when it thus changes the 
shape of its mass. Until then, we must be content to 
accept the fact as being the vital one upon which all 
the movements of animate creatures depend. 

But if, here as elsewhere, the ultimate activities of 
VOL. vn.— 4 [49] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

molecules and atoms lie beyond our ken, we may never- 
theless gain an insight into the nature of the substances 
involved. We know, for example, that the chief con- 
stituents of all protoplasm are carbon, hydrogen, 
oxygen, and nitrogen; and that with these main ele- 
ments there are traces of various other elements such 
as iron, sulphur, phosphorus, and sundry salts. We 
know that when the muscle contracts some of these 
constituents are disarranged through what is spoken 
of as chemical decomposition, and that there results 
a change in the substance of the protoplasm, accom- 
panied by the excretion of a certain portion of its con- 
stituents, and by the liberation of heat. Carbonic 
acid gas, for example, is generated and is swept away 
from the muscular tissues in the ever active blood- 
streams, to be carried to the lungs and there expelled 
— it being a noxious poison, fatal to life if retained in 
large quantities. Equally noxious are other substances 
such as uric acid and its compounds, which are also 
results of the breaking down of tissue that attends 
muscular action. In a word, there is an incessant 
formation of waste products, due to muscular activity, 
the removal of which requires the constant service of 
the purifying streams of blood and of the various ex- 
cretory organs. 

But this constant outflow of waste products from 
the muscle necessitates, of course, in accordance with 
the laws of the conservation of matter and of energy, 
an equally constant supply of new matter to take the 
place of the old. This supply of what is virtually fuel 
to be consumed, enabling the muscle to perform its 

[50] 



THE ANIMAL MACHINE 

work, is brought to the muscle through the streams 
of blood which flow from the heart in the arterial 
chamiels, and in part also through the lymphatic system. 
The blood itself gains its supply from the digestive 
system and from the lungs. The digestive system sup- 
plies water, that all-essential diluent, and a great vari- 
ety of compounds elaborated into the proper pabulum; 
while the vital function of the lungs is to supply oxygen, 
which must be incessantly present in order that the 
combustion which attends muscular activity may take 
place. What virtually happens is that fuel is sent from 
the digestive system to be burned in the muscular 
system, with the aid of oxygen brought from the limgs. 

In this view, the muscular apparatus is a species of 
heat engine. In point of fact, it is a curiously deHcate 
one as regards the range of conditions within which 
it is able to act. The temperature of any given organism 
is almost invariable; the human body, for example, 
maintains an average temperature of gSf degrees, 
Fahrenheit. The range of variation from this tem- 
perature in conditions of health is rarely more than a 
fraction of a degree; and even under stress of the most 
severe fever the temperature never rises more than 
about eight degrees without a fatal result. That an 
organism which is producing heat in such varying quan- 
tities through its varying muscular activities should 
maintain such an equilibrium of temperature, would 
seem one of the most marvelous of facts, were it not 
so familiar. 

The physical means by which the heat thus gener- 
ated is rapidly given off, on occasion, to meet the varying 

[SI] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

conditions of muscular activity, is largely dependent 
upon the control of the blood supply, in which involun- 
tary muscles, similar to those of the heart, are concerned. 
In times of great muscular activity, when the production 
of heat is relatively enormous, the arterioles that supply 
the surface of the body are rapidly dilated so that a 
preponderance of blood circulates at the surface of 
the body, where it may readily radiate its heat into 
space; the vast system of perspiratory ducts, with 
which the skin is everywhere suppHed, aiding enor- 
mously in facilitating this result, through the secretion 
of a film of perspiration, which in evaporating takes 
up large quantities of heat. 

The flushed, perspiring face of a person who has 
violently exercised gives a familiar proof of these 
physiological changes; and the contrary condition, 
in which the peripheral circulation is restricted, and in 
which the pores are closed, is equally familiar. More- 
over, the same cutaneous mechanism is efhcient in afford- 
ing the organism protection from the changes of external 
temperature; though the human machine, thanks to 
the pampering influence of civiHzation, requires addi- 
tional protection in the form of clothing. 

APPLICATIONS OF MUSCULAR ENERGY 

Having thus outlined the conditions under which the 
muscular machine performs its work, we have now to 
consider briefly the external mechanisms with the aid 
of which muscular energy is utiKzed. Of course, the 
simplest application of this power, and the one univer- 

[52] 



THE ANIMAL MACHINE 

sally employed in the animal world is that in which a di- 
rect push or pull is given to the substance, the position 
of which it is desired to change. We have already 
pointed out that there is no essential difference between 
pushing and pulling. The fact receives another illus- 
tration in considering the muscular mechanism. We 
speak of pushing when we propel something away from 
a body, of pulling when we draw something toward 
it, yet, as we have just seen, each can be accomplished 
merely through the contraction of a set of muscles, acting 
on differently disposed levers. All the bodily activi- 
ties are reducible to such muscular contractions, and 
the diversified movements in which the organism con- 
stantly indulges are merely due to the large number 
and elaborate arrangement of the bony levers upon 
which these muscles are operated. 

We may well suppose that the primitive man continued 
for a long period of time to perform all such labors as 
he undertook without the aid of any artificial mech- 
anism; that is to say, without having learned to gain 
any power beyond that which the natural levers of his 
body provided. A brief observation of the actions 
of a man performing any piece of manual labor will, 
however, quickly demonstrate how ingeniously the 
bodily levers are employed, and how by shifting positions 
the worker unconsciously makes the most of a given 
expenditure of energy. By bending the arms and 
bringing them close to the body, he is able to shorten 
his levers so that he can lift a much greater weight than 
he could possibly raise with the arms extended. On 
the other hand, with the extended arm he can strike a 

[53] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

much more powerful blow than with the shorter lever 
of the flexed arm. But however ingenious the manipu- 
lation of the natural levers, a full utilization of muscu- 
lar energy is possible only when they are supplemented 
with artificial aids, which constitute primitive pieces of 
machinery. 

These aids are chiefly of three types, namely, in- 
clined planes, friction reducers, and levers. The use 
of the inclined plane was very early discovered and 
put into practise in chipped implements, which took 
the form of the wedge, in such modifications as axes, 
knives, and spears of metal. All of these implements, 
it will be observed, consist essentially of inclined planes, 
adapted for piercing relatively soft tissues of wood or 
flesh, and hence serving purposes of the greatest prac- 
tical utility. 

The knife-blade is an extremely thin wedge, to be 
utilized by force of pushing, without any great aid from 
acquired momentum. The hatchet, on the other hand 
— and its modification the axe — has its blunter blade 
fastened to a handle; that the principle of the wedge 
may be utilized at the long end of a lever and with the 
momentum of a swinging blow. Ages before anyone 
could have explained the principle involved in such 
obscuring terms as that, the implement itself was in use 
for the same purpose to which it is still appHed. Indeed, 
there is probably no other implement that has played 
a larger part in the history of human industry. Even 
in the Rough Stone Age it was in full favor, and the 
earliest metallurgists produced it in bronze and then 
in iron. The blade of to-day is made of the best tem- 

[54] 



THE ANIMAL MACHINE 

pered steel, and the handle or helve of hickory is given 
a slight curve that is an improvement on the straight 
handle formerly employed; but on the whole it may 
be said that the axe is a surviving primitive implement 
that has held its own and demonstrated its utility in 
every generation since the dawn, not of history only, 
but of barbarism, perhaps even of savagery. 

The saw, consisting essentially of a thin elongated 
blade, one ragged or toothed edge, is a scarcely less 
primitive and an equally useful and familiar application 
of the principle of the inclined plane — though it requires 
a moment's reflection to see the manner of application. 
Each tooth, however minute, is an inclined plane, cal- 
culated to slide over the tissue of wood or stone or iron 
even, yet to tear at the tissue with its point, and, with the 
power of numbers, ultimately wear it away. 

THE WHEEL AND AXLE 

The primitive friction reducer, which continues in 
use to the present day immodified in principle, is the 
wheel revolving on an axle. Doubtless man had 
reached a very high state of barbarism before he in- 
vented such a wheel. The American Indian, for exam- 
ple, knew no better method than to carry his heavy 
burdens on his shoulders, or drag them along the ground, 
with at most a pair of parallel poles or runners to modify 
the friction; every move representing a very wasteful 
expenditure of energy. But the pre-historic man of the 
old world had made the wonderful discovery that a 
wheel revolving on an axle vastlv reduces the friction 

[55] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

between a weight and the earth, and thus enables a 
man or a woman to convey a load that would be far 
beyond his or her unaided powers. It is well to use 
both genders in this illustration, since among primitive 
peoples it is usually the woman who is the bearer of 
burdens. And indeed to this day one may see the 
women of Italy and Germany bearing large burdens 
on their backs and heads, and dragging carts about the 
streets, quite after the primitive method. 

The more one considers the mechanism, the more 
one must marvel at the ingenuity of the pre-historic 
man who invented the wheel and axle. Its utility 
is sufficiently obvious once the thing has been done. 
In point of fact, it so enormously reduces the friction 
that a man may convey ten times the burden with its 
aid that he can without it. But how was the primitive 
man, with his small knowledge of mechanics, to predict 
such a result? In point of fact, of course, he made 
no such prediction. Doubtless his attention was 
first called to the utility of rolling bodies by a chance 
observation of dragging a burden along a pebbly beach, 
or over rolling stones. The observation of logs or 
round stones rolling down a hiU might also have stimu- 
lated the imagination of some inventive genius. 

Probably logs placed beneath heavy weights, such 
as are still employed sometimes in moving houses, were 
utiHzed now and again for many generations before 
the idea of a narrow section of a log adjusted on an 
axis was evolved. But be that as it may, this idea was 
put into practise before the historic period begins, and 
we find the earHest civihzed races of which we have 

[56] 



THE ANIMAL MACHINE 

record — those, namely, of Old Egypt and of Old Baby- 
lonia — in full possession of the principle of the wheel 
as applied to vehicles. Modem mechanics have, of 
course, improved the mechanism as regards details, 
but the wheels depicted in Old Egyptian and Babylonian 
inscriptions are curiously similar to the most modem 
types. Indeed, the wheel is a striking illustration 
of a mechanism which continued century after century 
to serve the purposes of the practical worker, with seem- 
ingly no prospect of displacement. 

MODIFIED LEVERS 

For the rest, the mechanisms which primitive man 
learned early to use in adding to his working efficiency, 
and which are still used by the hand laborer, are vir- 
tually all modifications of our famihar type-implement, 
the lever. A moment's reflection will show that the 
diversified purposes of the crowbar, hoe, shovel, ham- 
mer, drill, chisel, are all accomphshed with the aid of 
the same principles. The crowbar, for example, 
enables man to regain the power which he lost when 
his members were adapted to locomotion. His hands, 
left to themselves, as we have already pointed out, give 
but inadequate expression to the power of his muscles. 
But by grasping the long end of such a lever as the 
crowbar, he is enabled to utilize his entire weight in 
addition to his muscular strength, and, with the aid 
of this lever, to lift many times his weight. 

The hoe, on the other hand, becomes virtually a 
lengthened arm, enabHng a very slight muscular motion 

[57] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

to be transformed into the long sweep of the implement, 
so that with small expenditure of energy the desired 
work is accomplished. Similarly, the sledge and the 
axe lengthen out the lever of the arms, so that great 
momentum is readily acquired, and with the aid of 
inertia a relatively enormous force can be applied. 
It will be observed that a laborer in raising a heavy 
sledge brings the head of the implement near his 
body, thus shortening the leverage and gaining power 
at the expense of speed; but extends his arms to their 
full length as the sledge falls, having now the aid of 
gravitation, to gain the full advantage of the long arm 
of the lever in acquiring momentum. 

Even such elaborately modified implements as the 
treadmill and the rowboat are operated on the principle 
of the lever. These also are mechanisms that have 
come down to us from a high antiquity. Their utility, 
however, has been greatly decreased in modem times, 
by the substitution of more elaborate and economical 
mechanisms for accompHshing their respective pur- 
poses. The treadmill, indeed — which might be likened 
to an overshot waterwheel in which the human foot 
supplied the place of the falling water in giving power 
— has become obsolete, though a modification of it, 
to be driven by animal power, is still sometimes used, 
as we shall see in a moment. 

All these are illustrations of mechanisms with the aid 
of which human labor is made effective. They show the 
devices by which primitive man used his ingenuity in 
making his muscular system a more effective machine 
for the performance of work. But perhaps the most 

[58] 



THE ANIMAL MACHINE 

ingenious feat of all which our primitive ancestor accom- 
pHshed was in learning to utilize the muscular energy 
of other animals. Of course the example was always 
before him in the observed activity of the animals on 
every side. Nevertheless, it was doubtless long before 
the idea suggested itself, and probably longer still before 
it was put into practise, of utilizing this almost inex- 
haustible natural supply of working energy. 

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

The first animal domesticated is beHeved to have 
been the dog, and this animal is still used, as everyone 
knows, as a beast of burden in the far North, and in 
some European cities, particularly in those of Germany. 
Subsequently the ox was domesticated, but it is probable 
that for a vast period of time it was used for food pur- 
poses, rather than as a beast of burden. And lastly 
the horse, the worker par excellence, was made captive 
by some Asiatic tribes having the genius of invention, 
and in due course this fleetest of carriers and most 
efficient of draught animals was introduced into all 
civiUzed nations. 

Doubtless for a long time the energy of the horse 
was utiHzed in an uneconomical way, through binding 
the burden on its back, or causing it to drag the burden 
along the groimd. But this is inferential, since, as 
we have seen, the wheel was invented in pre-historic 
times, and at the dawn of history we find the Babylon- 
ians driving harnessed horses attached to wheeled vehi- 
cles. From that day to this the method of using 

[59] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

horse-power has not greatly changed. The vast major- 
ity of the many milHons of horses that are employed 
every day in helping on the world's work, use their 
strength without gain or loss through leverage, and 
with only the aid of rolling friction to increase their 
capacity as beasts of burden. 

To a certain extent horse-power is still used with 
the aid of the modified treadmill just referred to — 
consisting essentially of an inclined plane of flexible 
mechanism made into an endless platform, which the 
horse causes to revolve as he goes through the move- 
ments of walking upon it. In agricultural districts this 
form of power is still sometimes used to run threshing 
machines, cider mills, wood-saws, and the Hke. An- 
other application of horse-power to the same ends is 
accompHshed through harnessing a horse to a long 
lever like the spoke of a wheel, fastened to an axis, 
which is made to revolve as the horse walks about it. 
Several horses are sometimes hitched to such a mech- 
anism, which becomes then a wheel of several spokes. 
But this mechanism, which was common enough in 
agricultural districts two or three decades ago, has 
been practically superseded in recent years by the per- 
ambulatory steam engine. 

It is obvious that the amount of work which a horse 
can accomplish must vary greatly with the size and 
quality of the horse, and with the particular method 
by which its energy is applied. For the purposes of 
comparison, however, an arbitrary amount of work 
has been fixed upon as constituting what is called a 
horse-power. This amount is the equivalent of raising 

[60] 




TWO APPARATUSES FOR THE UTILIZATION OF ANIMAL PO^^ ER 

The upper figure shows the type of portable horse-power machine used for 
threshing grain in 185 1. The lower figure is an inclined-plane horse-gear. The 
horse stands on the sloping platform tied to the bar in front, so that it is compelled 
to walk as the platform recedes. 



THE ANIMAL MACHINE 

thirty-three thousand pounds of weight to the height of 
one foot in one minute. It would be hard to say just 
why this particular standard was fixed upon, since it 
certainly represents more than the average capacity 
of a horse. It is, however, a standard which long 
usage (it was first suggested by Watt, of steam-engine 
fame) has rendered convenient, and one which the 
machinist refers to constantly in speaking of the efh- 
ciency of the various t)rpes of artificial machines. All 
questions of the exact legitimacy of this particular 
standard aside, it was highly appropriate that the labor 
of the horse, which has made up so large a share of 
the labor of the past, and which is still so extensively 
utilized, should continue to be taken as the measuring 
standard of the world's work. 



[6i] 



IV 



THE WORK OF AIR AND WATER 

THE store of energy contained in the atmos- 
phere and in the waters of the globe is in- 
exhaustible. Its amount is beyond all cal- 
culation; or if it were vaguely calculated the figures 
would be quite incomprehensible from their very 
magnitude. It is not, however, an altogether simple 
matter to make this energy available for the pur- 
poses of useful work. We find that throughout 
antiquity comparatively little use was made of either 
wind or water in their application to machinery. 

Doubtless the earliest use of air as a motive power 
was through the appHcation of sails to boats. We 
know that the Phoenicians used a simple form of sail, 
and no doubt their example was followed by all the 
maritime peoples of subsequent periods. But the use 
of the sail even by the Phoenicians was as a compara- 
tively unimportant accessory to the galaxies of oars, 
which formed the chief motive power. The elabora- 
tion of sails of various types, adequate in extent to 
propel large ships, and capable of being adjusted so 
as to take advantage of winds blowing from almost any 
quarter, was a development of the Middle Ages. 
The possibiHties of work with the aid of running 

[62] 



THE WORK OF AIR AND WATER 

water were also but little understood by the ancients. 
In the days of slave labor it was scarcely worth while 
to tax man^s ingenuity to invent machines, since so 
efficient a one was provided by nature. Yet the prop- 
erties of both air and water were studied by various 
mechanical philosophers, at the head of whom were 
Archimedes, whose work has already been referred to, 
and the famous Alexandrian, Ctesibius, whose investi- 
gations became famiHar through the publications of his 
pupil. Hero. 

Perhaps the most remarkable device invented by Ctes- 
ibius was a fire-engine, consisting of an arrangement 
of valves constituting a pump, and operating on the 
principle which is still in vogue. It is known, however, 
that the Egyptians of a much earher period used 
buckets having valves in their bottoms, and these per- 
haps furnished the foundation for the idea of Ctesibius. 
It is unnecessary to give details of this fire7engine. 
It may be noted, however, that the principle of the lever 
is the one employed in its operation to gain power. A 
valve consists essentially of any simple hinged sub- 
stance, arranged so that it may rise or fall, alternately 
opening and closing an aperture. A mere flap of 
leather, nailed on one edge, serves as a tolerably effec- 
tive valve. At least one of the valves used by Ctesibius 
was a hinged piece of smooth metal. A piston fitted 
in a cylinder supplies suction when the lever is raised, 
and pressure when it is compressed, alternately opening 
the valve and closing the valve through which the water 
enters the tube. Meantime a second valve alternating 
with the first permits the water to enter the chamber 

[63] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

containing air, which through its elasticity and pressure 
equalizes the force of the stream that is ejected from 
the chamber through the hose. 



SUCTION AND PRESSURE 

In the construction of this and various other appara- 
tus, Ctesibius and Hero were led to make careful 
studies of the phenomena of suction. But in this 
they were not alone, since numerous of their predecessors 
had studied the subject, and such an apparatus as 
the surgeon's cupping glass was familiarly known 
several centuries before the Christian era. The cupping 
glass, as perhaps should be explained to the reader of 
the present day — since the apparatus went out of 
vogue in ordinary medical practise two or three 
generations ago — consists of a glass cup in which the air 
is exhausted, so as to suck blood from any part of the 
surface of a body to which it is applied. Hero describes 
a method of exhausting air by which such suction may 
be facihtated. But neither he nor any other philoso- 
pher of his period at all understood the real nature of 
this suction, notwithstanding their perfect famiHarity 
with numerous of its phenomena. It was known, 
for example, that when a tube closed at one end is 
filled with water and inverted with the open end beneath 
the surface of the water, the water remains in the tube, 
although one might naturally expect that it would obey 
the impulses of gravitation and run out, leaving the 
tube empty. A familiar explanation of this and alhed 
phenomena throughout antiquity was found in the 

[64] 



THE WORK OF AIR AND WATER 

saying that ^'Nature abhors a vacuum.'' This expla- 
nation, which of course amounts to no explanation 
at all, is fairly illustrative of the method of metaphysical 
word-juggling that served so largely among the earlier 
philosophers in explanation of the mysteries of physical 
science. 

The real explanation of the phenomena of suction 
was not arrived at until the revival of learning in the 
seventeenth century. Then Torricelli, the pupil of 
GaHleo, demonstrated that the word suction, as com- 
monly applied, had no proper application; and that 
the phenomena hitherto ascribed to it were really due 
to the pressure of the atmosphere. A vacuum is 
merely an enclosed space deprived of air, and the "ab- 
horrence" that Nature shows to such a space is due 
to the fact that air has weight and presses in every 
direction, and hence tends to invade every space to 
which it can gain access. It was presently discovered 
that if the inverted tube in which the water stands 
was made high enough, the water will no longer fill it, 
but will sink to a certain level. The height at which 
it will stand is about thirty feet; above that height a 
vacuum will be formed, which, for some reason, Nature 
seems not to abhor. The reason is that the weight 
of any given column of water about thirty feet in height 
is just balanced by the weight of a corresponding column 
of atmosphere. The experiments that gave the proof 
of this were made by the famous EngHshman, Boyle. 
He showed that if the heavy hquid, mercury, is used 
in place of water, then the suspended column will be 
only about thirty inches in height. The weight or 

VOL. VI,— 5 [5^] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

pressure of the atmosphere at sea level, as measured 
by these experiments, is about fifteen pounds to the 
square inch. 

Boyle's further experiments with the air and with 
other gases developed the fact that the pressure ex- 
erted by any given quantity of gas is proportional to 
the external pressure to which it is subjected, which, 
after all, is only a special application of the law that 
action and reaction are equal. The further fact was 
developed that under pressure a gas decreases at a 
fixed rate in bulk. A general law, expressing these 
facts in the phrase that density and elasticity vary 
inversely with the pressure in a precise ratio, was 
developed by Boyle and the Frenchman, Mariotte, 
independently, and bears the name of both of its dis- 
coverers. No immediate appHcation of the law to 
the practical purposes of the worker was made, how- 
ever, and it is only in recent years that compressed 
air has been extensively employed as a motive power. 
Even now it has not proved a great commercial success, 
because other more economical methods of power pro- 
duction are available. In particular cases, however, 
it has a certain utility, as a relatively large available 
source of energy may be condensed into a very small 
receptacle. 

A very striking experiment illustrating the pressure 
of the air was made by a famous contemporary of 
Boyle and Mariotte, by the name of Otto von Guericke. 
He connected an air pump with a large brass sphere, 
composed of two hemispheres, the edges of which 
fitted smoothly, but were not connected by any mech- 

[66] 



THE WORK OF AIR AND WATER 

anism. Under ordinary conditions the hemispheres 
would fall apart readily, but von Guericke proved, by 
a famous public demonstration, that when the air was 
exhausted in the sphere, teams of horses pulling in 
opposite directions on the hemispheres could not 
separate them. This is famous as the experiment of 
the Magdeburg spheres, and it is often repeated on a 
smaller scale in the modem physical laboratory, to 
the astonishment of the tyro in physical experiments. 

The first question that usually comes to the mind 
of anyone who has personally witnessed such an experi- 
ment, is the question as to how the human body can 
withstand the tremendous force to which it is subjected 
by an atmosphere exerting a pressure of fifteen poimds 
on every square inch of its surface. The explanation 
is foimd in the uniform distribution of the pressure, 
the influence of which is thus counteracted, and by 
the fact that the tissues themselves contain everywhere 
a certain amount of air at the same pressure. The 
familiar experiment of holding the hand over an ex- 
hausted glass cylinder — which experiment is indeed 
but a modification of the use of the cupping glass above 
referred to — illustrates very forcibly the insupportable 
difficulties which the human body would encoimter 
were not its entire surface uniformly subjected to the 
atmospheric pressure. 

AIR IN MOTION 

At about the time when the scientific experiments 
with the pressure of gases were being made, prac- 
tical studies of the effects of masses of air in motion 

[67] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

were undertaken by the Dutch philosopher, Servinus. 
The use of the windmill in Holland as a means of gen- 
erating power doubtless suggested to Servinus the possi- 
bility of attaching a sail to a land vehicle. He made 
the experiment, and in the year 1600 constructed a 
sailing car which, propelled by the wind, traversed the 
land to a considerable distance, on one occasion con- 
veying a company of which Prince Maurice of Orange 
was a member. But his experiments have seldom 
been repeated, and indeed their lack of practical feasi- 
bility scarcely needs demonstration. 

The utility of the wind, however, in generating the 
power in a stationary mechanism is familiar to everyone. 
Windmills were constructed at a comparatively early 
period, and notwithstanding all the recent progress in 
the development of steam and electrical power, this 
relatively primitive so-called prime mover still holds 
its own in agricultural districts, particularly in its appH- 
cation to pumps. A windmill consists of a series of in- 
clined planes, each of which forms one of the radii of a 
circle, or spokes of a wheel, to the axle of which a gearing 
is adjusted by which the power generated is utilized. The 
wheel is made to face the wind by the wind itself blowing 
against a sort of rudder which projects from the axis. 
The wind blowing against the inclined surfaces or 
vanes of the wheel causes each vane to move in accord- 
ance with the law of component forces, thus revolving 
the wheel as a whole. 

It has been affirmed that the Romans had windmills, 
but "the silence of Vitruvius, Seneca, and Chrysostom, 
who have spoken of the advantages of the wind, makes 

[68] 




WINDMILLS OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TYPES. 

The smaller figures show Dutch windmills of the present day, many of which are 
identical in structure with the windmills of the middle ages. It will be seen that the 
sails can be furled when desired to put the mill out of operation. In the mill of modern 
type (large figure) the same effect is produced by slanting the slats of the wheel. 



THE WORK OF AIR AND WATER 

this opinion questionable." It has been supposed 
by other writers that windmills were used in France in 
the sixth century, while still others have maintained 
that this mechanism was unknown in Europe until 
the time of the Crusades. All that is tolerably certain 
is that in the twelfth century windmills were in use in 
France and England. It is recorded that when they 
began to be somewhat common Pope Celestine III. 
determined that the tithes of them belonged to the clergy. 

INHERENT DEFECTS OF THE WINDMILL 

The mediaeval European windmill was supplied 
with great sails of cloth, and its picturesque appear- 
ance has been made famihar to everyone through the 
famous tale of Don Quixote. The modem windmill, 
acting on precisely the same principle, is a comparatively 
small affair, comprising many vanes of metal, and 
constituting a far more practical machine. The great 
defect of all windmills, however, is found in the fact 
that of necessity they furnish such variable power, 
since the force of the wind is incessantly changing. 
Worst of all, there may be protracted periods of atmos- 
pheric calm, during which, of course, the windmill 
ceases to have any utility whatever. This uneradicable 
defect relegates the windmill to a subordinate place 
among prime movers, yet on the other hand, its cheap- 
ness insures its employment for a long time to come, 
and the industry of manufacturing windmills continues 
to be an important one, particularly in the United 
States. 

[69] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

RUNNING WATER 

The aggregate amount of work accomplished with 
the aid of the wind is but trifling, compared with that 
which is accomplished with the aid of water. The 
supply of water is practically inexhaustible, and this 
fluid being much more manageable than air, can be 
made a far more dependable aid to the worker. Every 
stream, whatever its rate of flow, represents an enor- 
mous store of potential energy. A cubic foot of water 
weighs about sixty-two and a half pounds. The 
working capacity of any mass of water is represented 
by one-half its weight into the square of its velocity; 
or, stated otherwise, by its weight into the distance of its 
fall. Now, since the interiors of the continents, where 
rivers find their sources, are often elevated by some 
hundreds or even thousands of feet, it follows that the 
working energy expended — and for the most part 
wasted — by the aggregate water current of the world 
is beyond all calculation. Meantime, however, a 
portion of the energy which in the aggregate represents 
an enormous working power is utilized with the aid 
of various types of water wheels. 

Watermills appear to have been introduced in the 
time of Mithridates, JuHus Caesar, and Cicero. Strabo 
informs us that there was a watermill near the residence 
of Mithridates; and we learn from Pomponius Sabinus, 
that the first mill seen at Rome was erected on the 
Tiber, a httle before the time of Augustus. That they 
existed in the time of Augustus is obvious from the de- 
scription given of them by Vitruvius, and the epigram 

[70] 



THE WORK OF AIR AND WATER 

of Antipater, who is supposed to have Hved in the time 
of Cicero. But though mills driven by water were 
introduced at this early period, yet pubHc mills did 
not appear till the time of Honorius and Arcadius. 
They were erected on three canals, which conveyed 
water to the city, and the greater number of them lay 
under Mount Janiculum. When the Gojths besieged 
Rome in 536, and stopped the large aqueduct and con- 
sequently the mills, Belisarius appears to have con- 
structed, for the first time, floating mills upon the Tiber. 
Mills driven by the tide existed at Venice in the year 
1046, or at least in 1078. 

The older types of water wheel are exceedingly simple 
in construction, consisting merely of vertical wheels 
revolving on horizontal axes, and so placed as to receive 
the weight or pressure of the water on paddles or buck- 
ets at their circumference. The water might be al- 
lowed to rush imder the wheel, thus constituting an 
under-shot wheel; or more commonly it flows from 
above, constituting an over-shot wheel. Where the 
natural fall is not available, dams are employed to 
supply an artificial fall. 

This primitive type of water wheel has been prac- 
tically abandoned within the last generation, its place 
having been taken by the much more efficient type of 
wheel known as the turbine. This consists of a wheel, 
usually adjusted on a vertical axis, and acting on what is 
virtually the principle of a windmill. To gain a mental 
picture of the turbine in its simplest form, one might 
imagine the propelling screw of a steamship, placed 
horizontally in a tube, so that the water could rush 

[71] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

against its blades. The tiny windmills which children 
often make by twisting pieces of paper illustrate the 
same principle. Of course, in its developed form the 
turbine is somewhat elaborated, in the aim to utiHze as 
large a proportion of the energy of the falling water 
as is possible ; but the principle remains the same. 

The turbine wheel was invented by a Frenchman 
named Foumeyron, about three-quarters of a century 
ago (1827), but its great popularity, in America in 
particular, is a matter of the last twenty or thirty years. 
To-day it has virtually supplanted every other type 
of water wheel. To use any other is indeed a wasteful 
extravagance, as the perfected turbine makes available 
more than eighty per cent, of the kinetic energy of any 
mass of falling water. A turbine wheel two feet in 
diameter is able to do the work of an enormous wheel 
of the old type. 

Turbine wheels are of several types, one operating 
in a closed tube to which air has no access, and another 
in an open space in the presence of air. The water 
may also be made to enter the turbine at the side or from 
below, thus serving to support the weight of the mech- 
anism—a consideration of great importance in the case 
of such gigantic turbines as those that are employed 
at Niagara Falls, which we shall have occasion to 
examine in detail in a later chapter. 

The power generated by a revolution of the turbine 
wheel may, of course, be utilized directly by belts or 
gearings attached to its axle, or it may be transferred 
to a distance, with the aid of a dynamo generating 
electricity. The latter possibility, which has only re- 

[72] 




WATER WHEELS. 

Fig. I shows a model of the so-called breast wheel, a familiar type of water 
wheel that has been in use since the time of the Romans. Figs. 2 and 3 show similar 
wheels as used to-day in Belgium. Fig. 4 shows a model of Fourneyron's turbine. 
This wheel was made' in 1837, but the original turbine was introduced by Fourneyron 
in 1827. The turbine wheel has now almost supplanted the other forms of water 
wheel except in rural districts. 



THE WORK OF AIR AND WATER 

cently been developed, and which we shall have occasion 
to examine in detail in connection with our studies of 
the power at Niagara, gives a new field of usefulness to 
the turbine wheel, and makes it probable that this 
form of power will be vastly more used in the future 
than it has been in the past. Indeed, it would not be 
surprising were it ultimately to become the prime source 
of working energy as utilized in every department of 
the world's work. 

Mr. Edward H. Sanborn, in an article on Motive 
Power Appliances in the Twelfth Census Report of the 
United States, comments upon the recent advances 
in the use of water wheels as follows: 

^'One notable advance in turbine construction has 
been the production of a type of wheel especially de- 
signed for operating under much higher heads of water 
than were formerly considered feasible for wheels of 
this type. Turbines are now built for heads ranging 
from ICO to 1,200 feet, and quite a number of wheels 
are in operation under heads of from 100 to 200 feet. 
This is an encroachment upon the field occupied almost 
exclusively by wheels variously known as the impulse,' 
'impact,' 'tangential,' or 'jet' type, the principle of 
which is the impact of a powerful jet of water from a 
small nozzle upon a series of buckets mounted upon 
the periphery of a small wheel." 

*'The impact water wheel," Mr. Sanborn continues, 
"has come largely into use during the last ten years, 
principally in the far West, where higher heads of water 
are available than can be found in other parts of the 
country. With wheels of this type, exceedingly simple 

[73] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

in construction and of comparatively small cost, a large 
amount of power is developed with great economy imder 
the great heads that are available. With the tremen- 
dous water pressure developed by heads of i,ooo feet 
and upward, which in many cases are used for this 
purpose, wheels of small diameter develop an extraor- 
dinary amount of power. To the original type of 
impact wheel which first led the field have been added 
several styles embodying practically the same principle. 
Considerable study has been given to the designing 
of buckets with a view to securing free discharge and 
the avoidance of any disturbing eddies, and important 
improvements have resulted from the thorough inves- 
tigation of the action of the water during, and subse- 
quent to, its impact on the buckets. The impact wheel 
has been adapted to a wide range of service with great 
variation as to the conditions under which it operates, 
wheels having been made in California from 30 inches 
to 30 feet in diameter, and to work under heads ranging 
from 35 to 2,100 feet, and at speeds ranging from 65 
to 1,100 revolutions per minute. A number of wheels 
of this type have been built with capacities of not less 
than 1,000 horse-power each.'' 

HYDRAULIC POWER 

A few words should be said about the familiar method 
of transmitting power with the aid of water, as illustrated 
by the hydrostatic press. This does not indeed utilize 
the energy of the water itself, but it enables the worker 
to transmit energy suppHed from without, and to gain 

[74] 



THE WORK OF AIR AND WATER 

an indefinite power to move weights through a short 
distance, with the expenditure of very Httle working 
energy. The principle on which the hydrostatic press 
is based is the one which was famihar to the ancient 
philosophers under the name of the hydrostatic para- 
dox. It was observed that if a tube is connected with 
a closed receptacle, such as a strong cask, and cask 
and tube are filled with water, the cask will presently 
be burst by the pressure of the water, provided the 
tube is raised to a height, even though the actual weight 
of water in the tube be comparatively sHght. A power- 
ful cask, for example, may be burst by the water poured 
into a slender pipe. The result seems indeed paradox- 
ical, and for a long time no explanation of it was forth- 
coming. It remained for Servinus, whose horseless 
wagon is elsewhere noticed, to discover that the water 
at any given level presses equally in all directions, and 
that its pressure is proportionate to its depth, quite 
regardless of its bulk. Then, supposing the tube in 
our experiment to have a cross-section of one square 
inch, a pressure equal to that in the tube would be 
transmitted to each square inch of the surface of the 
cask; and the pressure might thus become enormous. 
If, instead of a tube lifted to a height, the same tube 
is connected with a force pump operated with a lever — 
an apparatus similar to the fire-engine of Ctesibius — it 
is obvious that precisely the same effect may be pro- 
duced; whatever pressure is developed in the piston 
of the force pump, similar pressure will be transferred 
to a corresponding area in the surface of the cask or 
receptacle with which the force pump connects. In 

[75] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

practise this principle is utilized, where great pressure 
is desired, by making a receptacle with an enormous 
piston connecting with the force pump just described. 

An indefinite power may thus be developed, the 
apparatus constituting virtually a gigantic lever. But 
the principle of the equivalence of weight and distance 
still holds, precisely as in an actual lever, and while the 
pressure that may be exerted with slight expenditure 
of energy is enormous, the distance through which this 
pressure acts is correspondingly small. If, for example, 
the piston of the force pump has an area of one square 
inch, while the piston of the press has an area of several 
square feet, the pressure exerted will be measured in tons, 
but the distance through which it is exerted will be almost 
infinitesimal. The range of utility of the hydrostatic 
press is, therefore, limited, but within its sphere, it is 
an incomparable transmitter of energy. 

Moreover, it is possible to reverse the action of the 
hydraulic apparatus so as to gain motion at the expense 
of power. A familiar type of elevator is a case in point. 
The essential feature of the hydraulic elevator consists 
of a ram attached to the bottom of the elevator and 
extending down into a cylinder, slightly longer than the 
height to which the elevator is to rise. The ram is 
fitting into a cylinder with water-tight packing, or a 
cut leather valve. Water imder high pressure is ad- 
mitted to the cylinder through the valve at the bottom, 
and the pressure thus supplied pushes up the ram, 
carrying the elevator with it, of course. Another valve 
allows the water to escape, so that ram and elevator 
may descend, too rapid descent being prevented by 

[76] 




HYDRAULIC PRESS AND HYDRAULIC CAPSTAN. 

The upper figure shows Bramah's original hydraulic pump and press, now pre- 
served in the South Kensington Museum, London. The machine was constructed 
in 1796 by Joseph Bramah to demonstrate the principle of his hydraulic press. 
The discrepancy in size between the small lever worked by hand and the enormous 
lever carrving a heavy weight gives a vivid impression of the gain in power through 
the use of the apparatus. The lower figure shows the hydrauhc capstan used 
on many modern ships, in which the same principle is utilized. 



THE WORK OF AIR AND WATER 

the partial balancing of ram and elevator with weights 
acting over pulleys. The ram, to the end of which 
pressure is thus applied, need be but a few inches in 
diameter. Water pressure is secured by bringing water 
from an elevation. Such an elevator acts slowly, but 
is a very safe and in many ways satisfactory mechanism. 
Such elevators are still used extensively in Europe, 
but have been almost altogether displaced in America 
by the electric elevator. 

The hydraulic elevator just described is virtually a 
water engine, the ram acting as piston. A veritable en- 
gine, of small size, to perform any species of mechanical 
work, may be constructed on precisely the same prin- 
ciple, the piston in this case acting in a cylinder similar 
to that of the ordinary steam engine. Such an engine 
operates slowly but with great power. It has special 
utility where it is desirable to apply power intermit- 
tently, as in various parts of a dockyard, or in handling 
guns and ammunition on shipboard. In the former 
case in particular, it is often inconvenient to use steam 
power, as steam sent from a central boiler condenses 
in a way to interfere with its operation. In such a case 
any number of small water-pressure engines may be 
operated from a single tank where water is at a high 
elevation, or where the requisite pressure is secured 
artificially. In the latter case, the water is kept under 
pressure by a large piston or ram heavily weighted, 
the entire receptacle being, of course, of water-tight 
construction and adapted to withstand pressure. The 
pump that supplies the tank is ordinarily made to work 
automatically, ceasing operation as soon as the ram 

[77] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

rises to the top of the receptacle, and beginning again 
whenever, through use of water, the ram begins to 
descend. Such an apparatus is called an accumulator. 
Such water engines have come into vogue only in com- 
paratively recent times, being suggested by the steam 
engine. As already pointed out, their utility is re- 
stricted, yet the total number of them in actual use to- 
day is large, and their share in the world's work is not 
altogether inconsiderable. 



[78] 



CAPTIVE MOLECULES: THE STORY OF THE STEAM ENGINE 

WE come now to that all-important trans- 
former of power, the steam engine. Every- 
body knows that steam is a state of water 
in which, under the influence of heat, the molecules have 
broken away from the mutual attraction of cohesion, 
and are flying about at inconceivable speed, rebounding 
from one another after collision, in virtue of their elas- 
ticity, exerting in the aggregate an enormous pressure in 
every direction. It is this consideration of the intimate 
character of steam that justifies the title of the present 
chapter; a title that has further utility as drawing a 
contrast between the manner of working with which we 
are now to be concerned, and the various types of 
workers that we have previously considered. 

In speaking of the animal machine and of work ac- 
complished by the air and the water, we have been con- 
cerned primarily with masses of matter, possessing and 
transmitting energy. Of course molecules — since they 
make up the substance of all matter — could not be 
altogether ignored, but in the main we have had to do 
with molar rather than with molecular motion. Now, 
however, we are concerned with a mechanism in which 
the molecular activities are directly concerned in per- 
forming work. 

t79] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

Even in the aggregate the molecules make up a mere 
mtangible gas, which requires to be closely confined 
in order that its energy may be made available. Once 
the molecules have performed their work, they are so 
changed in their activities that they sink back, as it 
were, exhausted, into a relatively quiescent state, which 
enables their latent cohesive forces to reduce them again 
to the state of a liquid. In a word, we are concerned 
with the manifestation of energy which depends upon 
molecular activities in a way quite different from what 
has been the case with any of the previously considered 
mechanisms. The tangible manifestation of energy 
which we term heat is not merely a condition of action 
and a by-product, as it was in the case of the animal 
machine; it is the essential factor upon which all the 
efficiency of the mechanism depends. 

It should perhaps be stated that this explanation of 
the action of the steam engine is a comparatively modem 
scientific interpretation. The earher experimenters 
brought the steam engine to a high state of efficiency, 
without having any such conception as this of the nature 
of steam itself. For practical purposes it suffices to note 
that water when heated takes the form of steam; that 
this steam has the property of powerful and indefinite 
expansion; and thirdly, that when allowed to escape 
from a state of pressure, sudden expansion of the steam 
cools it sufficiently to cause the recondensation of part 
of its substance, thus creating a vacuum. 

Stated in few words, the entire action of the steam 
depends upon these simple mechanical principles. The 
principles are practically applied by permitting the 

[80] , 



CAPTIVE MOLECULES 

steam to enter the cylinder where it can act on a piston, 
to which it gives the thrust that is transmitted to an 
external mechanism by means of a rod attached to the 
piston. When the piston has been driven to the end of 
the desired thrust, the valve is opened automatically, 
permitting the steam to escape, thus producing a vac- 
uum, and insuring the return thrust of the piston, which 
is further faciHtated, ordinarily, by the admission of 
steam to the other side of the piston. Practical opera- 
tion of this mechanism is familiar to everyone, though 
the marvel of its power and efficiency seems none the 
less because of its familiarity. 

It is not too much to say that this relatively simple 
device, in its first general application, marked one of 
the most important turning points in the history of 
civilization. To its influence, more than to any other 
single cause, must be ascribed the revolutionary change 
that came over the character of practical Hfe in the 
nineteenth century. From prehistoric times till well 
toward the close of the eighteenth century, there was 
scarcely any important change in carrying out the 
world's work. And in the few generations that have 
since elapsed, the entire aspect of the mechanical world 
has been changed, the working efficiency of the individ- 
ual has been largely increased; mechanical tasks have 
become easy which hitherto were scarcely within the 
range of human capacity. 

Before we go on to the detailed study of the machine 
which has produced these remarkable results, it is de- 
sirable to make inquiry as to the historical development 
of so important an invention. 

VOL. VI. — 6 rsi 1 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

The practical steam engine in its modern form dates, 
as just mentioned, from the latter part of the eighteenth 
century, and was perfected by James Watt, who is com- 
monly thought of as being its inventor. In point of fact, 
however, the history of most inventions is duplicated 
here, as on examination it appears that various fore- 
runners of Watt had been on the track of the steam 
engine, and some of them, indeed, had produced a 
workable machine of no small degree of efficiency. 

The very earliest experiments were made away back 
in the Alexandrian days in the second century before 
the Christian era, the experimenter being the famous 
Hero, whose work in an allied field was referred to in 
the preceding chapter. Hero produced — or at least 
described and so is credited with producing, though 
the actual inventor may have been Ctesibius — a little 
toy mechanism, in which a hollow ball was made to 
revolve on an axis through the agency of steam, which 
escaped from two bent tubes placed on opposite sides 
of the ball, their orifices pointing in opposite directions. 
The apparatus had no practical utility, but it sufficed 
to establish the principle that heat, acting through the 
agency of steam, could be made to do mechanical work. 
Had not the age of Hero been a time of mental stasis, 
it is highly probable that the principle he had thus 
demonstrated would have been applied to some more 
practical mechanism in succeeding generations. As it 
was, however, nothing practical came of his experi- 
ment, and the steam turbine engine was remembered 
only as a scientific toy. 

No other worker continued the experiments, so far 

[82] 



CAPTIVE MOLECULES 

as is known, until the time of the great Italian, Leonardo 
da Vinci, who, late in the fifteenth century, gave a new- 
impulse to mechanical invention. Leonardo experi- 
mented with steam, and succeeded in producing what 
was virtually an explosion engine, by the agency of 
which a ball was propelled along the earth. But this 
experiment also failed to have practical result. 

BEGINNINGS OF MODERN DISCOVERY 

Such sporadic experiments as these have no sequential 
connection with the story of the evolution of the steam 
engine. The experiments which led directly on to 
practical achievements were not begun until the 
seventeenth century. In the very first year of that 
century, an Italian named Giovanni Battista della 
Porta published a treatise on pneumatics, in which the 
idea of utilizing steam for the practical purpose of 
raising water was expressly stated. The idea of this 
inventor was put into effect in 1624 by a French en- 
gineer and mathematician, Solomon de Caus. He in- 
vented two different machines, the first of which re- 
quired a spherical boiler having an internal tube 
reaching nearly to the bottom ; a fire beneath the boiler 
produced steam which would force the water in the 
boiler to a height proportional to the pressure obtained. 
In the other machine, steam is led from the boiler into 
the upper part of a closed cistern containing water to be 
elevated. To the lower portion of the cistern a de- 
livery pipe was attached so that water was discharged 
under a considerable pressure. This arrangement was 

[83] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

precisely similar to the apparatus employed by Hero of 
Alexandria in various of his fountains, as regards the 
principle of expanding gas to propel water. An im- 
portant difference, however, consists in the fact that the 
scheme of della Porta and of de Caus embodied the 
idea of generating pressure with the aid of steam, 
whereas Hero had depended merely on the expansive 
property of air compressed by the water itself. 

While these mechanisms contained the germ of an 
idea of vast importance, the mechanisms themselves 
were of trivial utility. It is not even clear whether 
their projectors had an idea of the properties of the con- 
densation of vapor, upon which the working of the 
practical steam engine so largely depends. This idea, 
however, was probably grasped about half a century 
later by an EngHshman, Edward Somerset, the cele- 
brated Marquis of Worcester, who in 1663 described in 
his Century 0} Inventions an apparatus for raising water 
by the expansive force of steam. His own account of 
his invention is as follows: 

'^An admirable and most forcible way to drive up 
water by fire; not by drawing or sucking it upwards, 
for that must be as the philosopher calleth it, intra 
sphceram activitatis, which is but at such a distance. 
But this way hath no bounder, if the vessel be strong 
enough: for I have taken a piece of whole cannon, 
whereof the end was burst, and filled it three-quarters 
full of water, stopping and screwing up the broken end, 
as also the touch-hole; and making a constant fire 
under it, within twenty-four hours it burst and made a 
great crack; so that having a way to make my vessels 

[84] 



CAPTIVE MOLECULES 

so that they are strengthened by the force within them, 
and the one to fill after the other, I have seen the water 
run like a constant stream, forty feet high: one vessel 
of water, rarefied by fire, driveth up forty of cold water; 
and the man that tends the work is but to turn two 
cocks, that one vessel of water being consumed, another 
begins to force and refill with cold water, and so suc- 
cessively; the fire being tended and kept constant, 
which the self-same person may likewise abundantly 
perform in the interim, between the necessity of turn- 
ing the said cocks." 

It is unfortimate that the Marquis did not give a more 
elaborate description of this remarkable contrivance. 
The fact that he treats it so casually is sufficient evidence 
that he had no conception of the possibiHties of the 
mechanism; but, on the other hand, his description 
sufiices to prove that he had gained a clear notion of, 
and had experimentally demonstrated, the tremendous 
power of expansion that resides in steam. No example 
of his steam pump has been preserved, and historians 
of the subject have been left in doubt as to some de- 
tails of its construction, and in particular as to whether 
it utilized the principle of a vacuum created through 
condensation of the steam. 

THOMAS SAVERY'S STEAM PUMP 

This principle was clearly grasped, however, by 
another Englishman, Thomas Savery, a Cornish mine 
captain, who in 1698 secured a patent for a steam engine 
to be applied to the raising of water, etc. A working 

[85] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

model of this machine was produced before the Royal 
Society in 1699. The transactions of the Society con- 
tain the following: '^ June 14th, 1699, Mr. Savery en- 
tertained the Royal Society with showing a small model 
of his engine for raising water by help of fire, which he 
set to work before them: the experiment succeeded ac- 
cording to expectation, and to their satisfaction." 

The following very clear description of Savery's en- 
gine is given in the introduction to Beckmann's History 
of Inventions : 

^^This engine, which was used for some time to a con- 
siderable extent for raising water from mines, consisted 
of a strong iron vessel shaped like an egg, with a tube 
or pipe at the bottom, which descended to the place 
from which the water was to be drawn, and another 
at the top, which ascended to the place to which it was 
to be elevated. This oval vessel was filled with steam 
supplied from a boiler, by which the atmospheric air 
was first blown out of it. When the air was thus expelled 
and nothing but pure steam left in the vessel, the com- 
munication with the boiler was cut off, and cold water 
poured on the external surface. The steam within was 
thus condensed and a vacuum produced, and the water 
drawn up from below in the usual way by suction. The 
oval vessel was thus filled with water; a cock placed at 
the bottom of the lower pipe was then closed, and steam 
was introduced from the boiler into the oval vessel above 
the surface of the water. This steam being of high 
pressure, forced the water up the ascending tube, from 
the top of which it was discharged, and the oval vessel 
being thus refilled A^n[th steam, the vacuum was again 

[86] 




THOMAS SAVERY'S STEAM ENGINE. 



The principle involved is that of the expansion of steam exerting a propulsive 
force and its subsequent condensation to produce a vacuum. These are the princi- 
ples employed in the modern steam engine, but the only use to which they were put 
in Savery's engine was the elevation of water by suction. 



CAPTIVE MOLECULES 

produced by condensation, and the same process was 
repeated. By using two oval steam vessels, which would 
act alternately — one drawing water from below, while 
the other was forcing it upwards, an uninterrupted 
discharge of water was produced. Owing to the danger 
of explosion, from the high pressure of the steam 
which was used, and from the enormous waste of heat 
by unnecessary condensation, these engines soon fell 
into disuse." 

This description makes it obvious that Savery had 
the clearest conception of the production of a vacuum 
by the condensation of steam, and of the utiHzation 
of the suction thus established (which suction, as we 
know, is really due to the pressure of outside air) to 
accomplish useful work. Savery also arranged this 
apparatus in duplicate, so that one vessel was filling with 
water while the other was forcing water to the delivery 
pipe. This is credited with being the first useful ap- 
paratus for raising water by the combustion of fuel. 
There was a great waste of steam, through imparting 
heat to the water, but the feasibility of the all-important 
principle of accomplishing mechanical labor with the 
aid of heat was at last demonstrated. 

As yet, however, the experimenters were not on the 
track of the method by which power could be advan- 
tageously transferred to outside machinery. An effort 
in quite another direction to accomplish this had been 
made as early as 1629 by Giovanni Branca, an Italian 
mathematician, who had proposed to obtain rotary 
motion by allowing a jet of steam to blow against the 
vanes of a fan wheel, capable of turning on an axis. 

[87] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

In other words, he endeavored to utilize the principle of 
the windmill, the steam taking the place of moving air. 
The idea is of course perfectly feasible, being indeed 
virtually that which is employed in the modern steam 
turbine; but to put the idea into practise requires 
special detailed arrangements of steam jet and vanes, 
which it is not strange the early inventor failed to dis- 
cover. His experiments appear not to have been fol- 
lowed up by any immediate successor, and nothing 
practical came of them, nor was the principle which he 
had attempted to utilize made available until long after 
a form of steam engine utilizing another principle for 
the transmission of power had been perfected. 

DENIS PAPIN INVENTS THE PISTON ENGINE 

The principle in question was that of causing expand- 
ing steam to press against a piston working tightly in a 
cylinder, a principle, in short, with which everyone is 
familiar nowadays through its utiHzation in the ordin- 
ary steam engine. The idea of making use of such a 
piston appears to have originated with a Frenchman, 
Denis Papin, a scientific worker, who, being banished 
from his own country, was established as professor of 
mathematics at the University of Marburg. He con- 
ceived the important idea of transmitting power by 
means of a piston as early as 1688, and about two years 
later added the idea of producing a vacuum in a cylinder, 
by cooling the cylinder, — the latter idea being, as we 
have just seen, the one which Savery put into effect. 

It will be noted that Papin' s invention antedated that 

[88] 



CAPTIVE MOLECULES 

of Savery; to the Frenchman, therefore, must be given 
the credit of hitting upon two important principles 
which made feasible the modem steam engine. Papin 
constructed a model consisting of a small cylinder in 
which a solid piston worked. In the cylinder beneath 
the piston was placed a small quantity of water, which, 
when the cylinder was heated, was turned into steam, 
the elastic force of which raised the piston. The cylinder 
was then cooled by removing the fire, when the steam 
condensed, thus creating a vacuum in the cyHnder, into 
which the piston was forced by the pressure of the 
atmosphere. 

Such an apparatus seems crude enough, yet it in- 
corporates the essential principles, and required but the 
use of ingenuity in elaborating details of the mechanism, 
to make a really efficient steam engine. It would appear, 
however, that Papin was chiefly interested in the theo- 
retical, rather than in the really practical side of the 
question, and there is no evidence of his having pro- 
duced a working machine of practical power, until 
after such machines worked by steam had been con- 
structed elsewhere. 

THOMAS NEWCOMEN'S IMPROVED ENGINE 

As has happened so often in other fields. Englishmen 
were the first to make practical use of the new ideas. 
In 1705 Thomas Newcomen, a blacksmith or ironmon- 
ger, and John Cawley, a plumber and glazier, patented 
their atmospheric engine, and five years later, in the 
year 17 10, namely, Newcomen had on the market an 

[89] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

engine which is described in the Report 0} the De- 
partment of Science and Arts of the South Kensington 
Museum, as '^the first real pumping engine ever made." 

The same report describes the engine as '^a vertical 
steam cylinder provided with a piston connected at one 
end of the beam, having a pivot or bearing in the 
middle of its length, and at the other end of the beam 
pump rods for working the pump. The cylinder was 
surrounded by a second cylinder or jacket, open at the 
top, and cold water could be suppKed to this outer 
cylinder at pleasure. The single or working cylinder 
could be supplied with steam when desired from a 
boiler below it. There was a drain pipe from the bot- 
tom of the working cylinder, and one from the outer 
cylinder. For the working of the engine steam was 
admitted to the working cylinder, so as to fill it and expel 
all the air, the piston then being at the top, owing to the 
weight of the pump rods being sufficient to lift it ; then 
the steam was shut off and the drain cocks closed and 
cold water admitted to the outer cylinder, so that the 
steam in the working cylinder condensed, and, lea\ing 
a partial vacuum of pressure of the atmosphere, forced 
the piston down and drew up the pump rods, thus mak- 
ing a stroke of the pump. Then the water was drawn 
off from the outer cyHnder and steam admitted to the 
working cylinder before allowing the piston to return 
to the top of its stroke, ready for the next down stroke." 

It will be observed that this machine adopts the 
principle, with only a change of mechanical details, 
of the Papin engine just described. A later improve- 
ment made by Newcomen did away with the outer 

[90] 



CAPTIVE MOLECULES 

cylinder for condensing the steam, employing instead 
an injection of cold water into the working cylinder 
itself, thus enabling the engine to work more quickly. 
It is said that the superiority of the internal condensing 
arrangement was accidentally discovered through the im- 
proved working of an engine that chanced to have an 
exceptionally leaky piston or cylinder. Many engines 
were made on this plan and put into practical use. 

Another important improvement was made by a con- 
nection from the beam to the cocks or valves, so that 
the engine worked automatically, whereas in the first 
place it had been necessary to have a boy or man operate 
the valves, — a most awkward arrangement, in the light 
of modem improvements. As the story is told, the duty 
of opening and closing the regulating and condensing 
valves was intrusted to boys called cock boys. It is 
said that one of these boys named Humphrey Potter 
^'wishing to join his comrades at play without ex- 
posing himself to the consequences of suspending the 
performance of the engine, contrived, by attaching 
strings of proper length to the levers which governed 
the two cocks, to connect them with the beam, so that 
it should open and close the cocks as it moved up and 
down with the most perfect regularity." 

This story has passed current for almost two centuries, 
and it has been used to point many a useful moral. 
It seems almost a pity to disturb so interesting a tra- 
dition, yet it must have occurred to more than one 
iconoclast that the tale is almost too good to be true. 
And somewhat recently it has been more than hinted 
that DesaguHers, with whom the story originated, drew 

[91] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

upon his imagination for it. A print is in existence, 
made so long ago as 1719, representing an engine 
erected by Newcomen at Dudley Castle, Staffordshire, 
in 1 712, in which an automatic valve gear is clearly 
shown, proving that the Newcomen engine was worked 
automatically at this early period. That the admirable 
story of the inventive youth, whose wits gave him 
leisure for play, may not be altogether discredited, 
however, it should be added that unquestionably some 
of the early engines had a hand-moved gear, and that at 
least one such was still working in England after the 
middle of the nineteenth century. It seems probable, 
then, that the very first engines were without the auto- 
matic valve gear, and there is no inherent reason why 
a quick-witted youth may not have been the first to 
discover and remedy the defect. 

According to the Report of the Department of Science 
and Arts of the South Kensington Museum: ^^The 
adoption of Newcomen's engine was rapid, for, commen- 
cing in 1 71 1 with the engine at Wolverhampton, of 
twenty-three inch diameter and six foot stroke, they were 
in common use in English collieries in 1725 ; and Smea- 
ton foimd in 1767 that, in the neighborhood of New- 
castle alone there were fifty-seven at work, ranging in 
size from twenty-eight inch to seventy-five inch cylinder 
diameter, and giving collectively about twelve hundred 
horse-power. As Newcomen obtained an evaporation 
of nearly eight pounds of water per pound of coal, the 
increase of boiler efiiciency since his time has neces- 
sarily been but slight, although in other requisites of 
the steam generator great improvements are noticeable." 

[92] 




A MODEL OF THE NEWCOMEN ENGINE. 



This^engine has particular interest not only because it was a practical pumping 
engine, but also because it was while repairing an engine of this type that Watt 
was led to the experiments that resulted in his epoch-making discovery. 



CAPTIVE MOLECULES 

THE COMING OF JAMES WATT 

The Newcomen engine had low working efficiency as 
compared with the modem engine; nevertheless, some 
of these engines are still used in a few coUieries where 
waste coal is available, the pressure enabling the steam 
to be generated in boilers unsafe for other purposes. 
The great importance of the Newcomen engine, how- 
ever, is historical ; for it was while engaged in repairing 
a model of one of these engines that James Watt was 
led to invent his plan of condensing the steam, not in the 
working cylinder itself, but in a separate vessel, — 
the principle upon which such vast improvements in the 
steam engine were to depend. 

It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the 
work which Watt accomplished in developing the steam 
engine. Fully to appreciate it, we must understand 
that up to this time the steam engine had a very limited 
sphere of usefulness. The Newcomen engine repre- 
sented the most developed form, as we have seen; and 
this, like the others that it had so largely superseded, 
was employed solely for the pumping of water. In 
the main, its use was confined to mines, which were 
often rendered unworkable because of flooding. We 
have already seen that a considerable number of en~ 
gines were in use, yet their power in the aggregate 
added but a trifle to man's working efficiency, and the 
work that they did accomplish was done is a most 
uneconomical manner. Indeed the amount of fuel re- 
quired was so great as to prohibit their use in many 
mines, which would have been valuable could a cheaper 

[93] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

means have been found of freeing them from water. 
Watt's inventions, as we shall see, accomplished this end, 
as well as various others that were not anticipated. 

It was through consideration of the wasteful manner of 
action of the steam engine that Watt was led to give 
attention to the subject. The great inventor was a 
young man at the University of Glasgow. He had pre- 
viously served an apprenticeship of one year with a 
maker of philosophical instruments in London, but ill 
health had prevented him from finishing his appren- 
ticeship, and he had therefore been prohibited from 
practising his would-be profession in Glasgow. Finally, 
however, he had been permitted to work under the 
auspices of the University; and in due course, as a part 
of his official duties, he was engaged in repairing a 
model of the Newcomen engine. This incident is 
usually mentioned as having determined the line of 
Watt's future activity. 

It should be recalled, however, that Watt had become 
a personal friend of the celebrated Professor Black, the 
discoverer of latent heat, and the foremost authority 
in the world, in this period, on the study of pneumatics. 
Just what share Black had in developing Watt's idea, 
or in directing his studies toward the expansive proper- 
ties of steam, it would perhaps be difficult to say. It is 
known, however, that the subject was often under dis- 
cussion ; and the interest evinced in it by Black is shown 
by the fact that he subsequently wrote a history of Watt's 
inventions. 

It is never possible, perhaps, for even the inventor 
himself to re-live the history of the growth of an idea in 

[94] 



CAPTIVE MOLECULES 

his own mind. Much less is it possible for him to say 
precisely what share of his progress has been due to 
chance suggestions of others. But it is interesting, at 
least, to recall this association of Watt with the greatest 
experimenter of his age in a closely allied field. Ques- 
tions of suggestion aside, it illustrates the technical 
quaUty of Watt's mind, making it obvious that he was 
no mere ingenious mechanic, who stumbled upon his 
invention. He was, in point of fact, a carefully trained 
scientific experimenter, fully equipped with all the 
special knowledge of his time in its application to the 
particular branch of pneumatics to which he gave 
attention. 

The first and most obvious defect in the Newcomen 
engine was, as Watt discovered, that the alternating 
cooling and heating of the cylinder resulted in an un- 
avoidable waste of energy. The apparatus worked, it 
will be recalled, by the introduction of steam into a 
vertical cylinder beneath the piston, the cylinder being 
open above the piston to admit the air. The piston 
rod connected with a beam suspended in the middle, 
which operated the pump, and which was weighted at 
one end in order to facilitate the raising of the piston. 
The steam, introduced under low pressure, scarcely 
more than counteracted the pressure of the air, the 
raising of the piston being largely accomplished by the 
weight in question. 

Of course the introduction of the steam heated the 
cylinder. In order to condense the steam and produce 
a vacuum, water was injected, the cylinder being there- 
by cooled. A vacuum being thus produced beneath 

[95] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

the cylinder, the pressure of the air from above thrust 
the cylinder down, this being the actual working agent. 
It was for this reason that the Newcomen engine was 
called, with much propriety, a pneumatic engine. The 
action of the engine was very slow, and it was necessary 
to employ a very large piston in order to gain a consider- 
able power. 

The fir.st idea that occurred to Watt in connection 
with the probable improvement of this mechanism did 
not look to the alteration of any of the general features 
of the structure, as regards size or arrangement of cylin- 
der, piston, or beam, or the essential principle upon 
which the engine worked. His entire attention was fixed 
on the discovery of a method by which the loss of heat 
through periodical cooHng of the cylinder could be 
avoided. We are told that he contemplated the subject 
long, and experimented much, before he reached a satis- 
factory solution. Naturally enough his attention was 
first directed toward the cylinder itself. He queried 
whether the cylinder might not be made of wood, 
which, through its poor conduction of heat, might better 
equalize the temperature. Experiments in this direc- 
tion, however, produced no satisfactory result. 

Then at last an inspiration came to him. Why not 
connect the cylinder with another receptacle, in which 
the condensation of the steam could be effected ? The 
idea was a brilliant one, but neither its originator nor 
any other man of the period could possibly have realized 
its vast and all-comprehending importance. For in 
that idea was contained the germ of all the future of 
steam as a motive power. Indeed, it scarcely suffices 

[96] 




WATT S EARLIEST TYPE OF PUMPING ENGINE. 

The lower figure shows the ruins of Watt's famous engine "Old Bess." 
The upper figure shows a reconstructed model of the "Old Bess" engine. It 
will be n~Gted that the walking beam is precisely of the Newcomen type. In 
fact, the entire engine is obviously only a modification of the Newcomen 
engine. It had, however, certain highly important improvements, as de- 
scribed in the text. 



CAPTIVE MOLECULES 

to speak of it as the germ merely; the thing itself was 
there, requiring only the elaboration of details to bring 
it to perfection. 

Watt immediately set to work to put his brilliant 
conception of the separate condenser to the test of 
experiment. He connected the cylinder of a Newcomen 
engine with a receptacle into which the steam could be 
discharged after doing its work on the piston. The 
receptacle was kept constantly cooled by a jet of water, 
this water and the water of condensation, together with 
any air or uncondensed steam that might remain in the 
receptacle, being constantly removed with the aid of an 
air pump. The apparatus at once demonstrated its 
practical efficiency, — and the modem steam engine had 
come into existence. 

It was in the year 1765, when Watt was twenty-nine 
years old, that he made his first revolutionary experi- 
ment, but his first patents were not taken out until 
1769, by w^hich time his engine had attained a relatively 
high degree of perfection. In furthering his idea of 
keeping the cylinder at an even temperature, he had 
provided a covering for it, which might consist of wood 
or other poorly conducting material, or a so-called 
jacket of steam — that is to say, a portion of steam ad- 
mitted into the closed chamber surrounding the cylinder. 
Moreover, the cylinder had been closed at the top, and 
a portion of steam admitted above the piston, to take 
the place of the atmosphere in producing the down 
stroke. This steam above the piston, it should be ex- 
plained, did not connect with the condensing receptacle, 
so the engine was still single-acting; that is to say it 

VOL. VI».— 7 [gy] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

performed work only during one stroke of the piston. 
A description of the mechanism at this stage of its 
development may best be given in the words of the in- 
ventor himself, as contained in his specifications in the 
application for patent on his improvements in 1769. 

'^My method of lessening the consumption of steam, 
and consequently fuel, in fire-engines, consists of the 
following principles: 

'^ First, That vessel in which the powers of steam 
are to be employed to work the engine, which is called the 
cylinder in common fire-engines, and which I call the 
steam vessel, must, during the whole time the engine is 
at work, be kept as hot as the steam that enters it; 
first by enclosing it in a case of wood, or any other 
materials that transmit heat slowly; secondly, by 
surrounding it with steam or other heated bodies; and, 
thirdly, by suffering neither water nor any other sub- 
stance colder than the steam to enter or touch it during 
that time. 

^'Secondly, In engines that are to be worked wholly 
or partially by condensation of steam, the steam is to be 
condensed in vessels distinct from the steam vessels or 
cylinders, although occasionally communicating with 
them; these vessels I call condensers; and, whilst the 
engines are working, these condensers ought at least 
to be kept as cold as the air in the neighborhood 
of the engines, by application of water or other cold 
bodies. 

"Thirdly, Whatever air or other elastic vapor is not 
condensed by the cold of the condenser, and may impede 
the working of the engine, is to be drawn out of the 

[98] 



CAPTIVE MOLECULES 

steam vessels or condensers by means of pumps, wrought 
by the engines themselves, or otherwise. 

'^ Fourthly, I intend in many cases to employ the ex- 
pansive force of steam to press on the pistons, or what- 
ever may be used instead of them, in the same manner 
in which the pressure of the atmosphere is now em- 
ployed in common fire-engines. In cases where cold 
water can not be had in plenty, the engines may be 
wrought by this force of steam only, by discharging the 
steam into the air after it has done its office. 

"Sixthly, I intend in some cases to apply a degree of 
cold not capable of reducing the steam to water, but 
of contracting it considerably, so that the engines shall 
be worked by the alternate expansion and contraction 
of the steam. 

"Lastly, Instead of using water to render the pistons 
and other parts of the engine air- and steam-tight, I em- 
ploy oils, wax, resinous bodies, fat of animals, quick- 
silver and other metals in their fluid state." 



ROTARY MOTION 

It must be understood that Watt's engine was at 
first used exclusively as an apparatus for pumping. 
For some time there was no practical attempt to apply 
the mechanism to any other purpose. That it might 
be so applied, however, was soon manifest, in considera- 
tion of the relative speed with which the piston now 
acted. It was not until 1781, however, that Wattes 
second patent was taken out, in which devices are de- 
scribed calculated to convert the reciprocating motion 

[99] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

of the piston into motion of rotation, in order that the 
engine might drive ordinary machinery. 

It seems to be conceded that Watt was himself the 
originator of the idea of making the appHcation through 
the medium of a crank and fly-wheel such as are now 
universally employed. But the year before Watt took 
out his second patent, another inventor named James 
Picard had patented this device of crank and connecting 
rod, having, it is alleged, obtained the idea from a 
workman in Watt's employ. Whatever be the truth 
as to this point, Picard's patent made it necessary for 
Watt to find some alternative device, and after experi- 
menting, he hit upon the so-called sim and planet gear- 
ing, and henceforth this was used on his rotary engines 
until the time for the expiration of Picard's patent, 
after which the simpler and more satisfactory crank 
and fly-wheel were adopted. 

In the meantime. Watt had associated himself with a 
business partner named Boulton, imder the firm name 
of Boulton and Watt. In 1776 a special act of legisla- 
tion extending the term of Watt's original patent for a 
period of twenty-five years had been secured. All in- 
fringements were vigorously prosecuted, and the in- 
ventor, it is gratifying to reflect, shared fully in the 
monetary proceeds that accrued from his invention. 

Notwithstanding the early recognition of the pos- 
sibility of securing rotary motion with Watt's per- 
fected Newcomen engine, it was long before the full 
possibilities of the appHcation of this principle were 
realized, even by the most practical of machinists. 
Watt himself apparently appreciated the possibilities 

[100] 




watt's rotative engine. 

TKe lower figure shows the earliest type of mechanism through which Watt 
applied his engine to other uses than that of pumping. The so-called sun-and-planet 
gearing, through which rotary motion was attained, is seen at the lower right-hand 
corner of the figure. The upper figure shows a later and much improved type of 
the Watt engine, in which the sun-and-planet gearing has been supplanted by a 
simple crank. 



CAPTIVE MOLECULES 

no more fully than the others, as the use of his famous 
engines ''Beelzebub" and ''Old Bess" in the estab- 
lishment of Boulton and Watt amply testifies. It ap- 
pears that Boulton had been an extensive manufacturer 
of ornamental metal articles. To drive his machinery 
at Soho he employed two large water wheels, twenty- 
four feet in diameter and six feet wide. These sulB&ced 
for his purpose under ordinary conditions, but in dry 
weather from six to ten horses were required to aid in 
driving the machinery. When Watt's perfected engine 
was available, however, this was utilized to pump 
water from the tail race back to the head race, that it 
might be used over and over. "Old Bess" had a cylin- 
der thirty-three inches in diameter with seven-foot 
stroke, operating a pump twenty-four inches in diameter; 
it therefore had remarkable efficiency as a pumping 
apparatus. But of course it utiHzed, at best, only a 
portion of the working energy contained in the steam; 
and the water wheels in turn could utilize not more than 
fifty per cent, of the store of energy which the pump 
transferred to the water in raising it. Therefore, such 
use of the steam engine involved a most wasteful ex- 
penditure of energy. 

It was long, however, before the practical machinists 
could be made to believe that the securing of direct 
rotary power from the piston could be satisfactorily 
accomplished. It was only after the introduction of 
higher speed and heavier fly-wheels, together with im- 
proved governors, that the speed of rotation was so 
equalized as to meet satisfactorily the requirements of 
the practical engineer, and ultimately to displace the 

[lOl] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

wasteful method of securing rotary motion indirectly 
through the aid of pump and water wheel. It may be 
added, that the centrifugal governor, with which 
modem engines are provided to regulate their speed, 
was the invention of Watt himself. 



FINAL IMPROVEMENTS AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES 

In the year 1782 Watt took out patents which con- 
tained specifications for the two additional improve- 
ments that constituted his final contribution to the pro- 
duction of the steam engine. The first of these provided 
for the connection of the cylinder chamber on each side 
of the piston with the condenser, so that the engine be- 
came double acting. The second introduced the very 
important principle, — ^from the standpoint of economy 
in the use of steam — of shutting off the supply of steam 
from the cylinder while the piston has only partially 
traversed its thrust, and allowing the remainder of the 
thrust to be accomplished through the expansion of the 
steam. The application of the first of these principles 
obviously adds greatly to the efficiency of the engine, 
and in practise it was found that the application of the 
second principle produces a very great saving in steam, 
and thus adds materially to the economical working of 
the engine. 

All of Watt's engines continued to make use of the 
walking beam attached to the piston for the trans- 
mission of power; and engineers were very slow indeed 
to recognize the fact that in many — in fact in most — 
cases this contrivance may advantageously be done away 

[102] 



CAPTIVE MOLECULES 

with. The recognition of this fact constitutes one of 
the three really important advances that have been 
made in the steam engine since the time of Watt. The 
other two advances consist of the utilization of steam 
under high pressure, and of the introduction of the 
principle of the compound engine. 

Neither of these ideas was unknown to Watt, since 
the utilization of steam under high pressure was ad- 
vocated by his contemporary, Trevithick, while the 
compound engine was invented by another contempo- 
rary named Homblower. Perhaps the very fact that 
these rival inventors put forward the ideas in question 
may have influenced W^att to antagonize them; in 
particular since his firm came into legal conflict with 
each of the other inventors. At any rate, Watt con- 
tinued to the end of his life to be an ardent advocate of 
low pressure for the steam engine, and his firm even 
attempted to have laws passed making it illegal — on the 
ground of danger to human life — to utiHze high-pressure 
steam, such as employed by Trevithick. 

Possibly the conservatism of increasing age may also 
have had its share in rendering Watt antagonistic to the 
new ideas; for he was similarly antagonistic to the idea 
of applying steam to the purposes of locomotion. Trev- 
ithick, among others, had, as we shall see in due course, 
made such application with astonishing success, pro- 
ducing a steam automobile which traversed the highway 
successfully. In his earlier years Watt had conceived 
the same idea, and had openly expressed his opinion 
that the steam engine might be used for this purpose. 
But late in life he was so antipathetic to the idea that 

[103] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

he is said to have put a clause in the lease of his house, 
providing that no steam carriage should under any 
pretext be allowed to approach it. 

These incidents have importance as showing — as we 
shall see illustrated again and again in other fields — 
the disastrous influence in retarding progress that may 
be exercised by even the greatest of scientific discoverers, 
when authority well earned in earlier years is exercised 
in an unfortunate direction later in life. But such in- 
cidents as these are inconsequential in determining the 
position among the world's workers of the man who 
was almost solely responsible for the transformation of 
the steam engine from an expensive and relatively 
ineffective pumping apparatus, to the great central 
power that has ever since moved the major part of the 
world's machinery. 

THE SUPREME IMPORTANCE OF WATT 

It is speaking well within bounds to say that no other 
invention within historical times has had so important 
an influence upon the production of property — which, 
as we have seen, is the gauge of the world's work — as 
this invention of the steam engine. We have followed the 
history of that invention in some detail, because of its 
supreme importance. To the reader who was not 
previously famiHar with that history, it may seem 
surprising that after a lapse of a little over a century 
one name and one alone should be popularly remem- 
bered in connection with the invention; whereas in 
point of fact various workers had a share in the achieve- 

[104] 



CAPTIVE MOLECULES 

ment, and the man whose name is remembered was 
among the last to enter the field. We have seen that 
the steam engine existed as a practical working machine 
several decades before Watt made his first invention; 
and that what Watt really accomplished was merely the 
perfecting of an apparatus which already had attained 
a considerable measure of efficiency. 

There would seem, then, to be a certain lack of 
justice in ascribing supreme importance to Watt in 
connection with the steam engine. Yet this measure of 
injustice we shall find, as we examine the history of 
various inventions, to be meted always by posterity in 
determining the status of the men whom it is pleased 
to honor. One practical rule, and one only, has always 
determined to whom the chief share of glory shall be 
ascribed in connection with any useful invention. 

The question is never asked as to who was the 
originator of the idea, or who made the first tentative 
efforts towards its utiKzation, — or, if asked by the 
historical searcher, it is ignored by the generality of 
mankind. 

So far as the public verdict, which in the last resort de- 
termines fame, is concerned, the one question is. Who 
perfected the apparatus so that it came to have general 
practical utility? It may be, and indeed it usually is 
the case, that the man who first accompHshed the final 
elaboration of the idea, made but a comparatively slight 
advance upon his predecessors; the early workers 
produced a machine that was almost a success; only 
some little flaw remained in their plans. Then came 
the perfecter, who hit upon a device that would correct 

[105] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

this last defect, — and at last the mechanism, which 
hitherto had been only a curiosity, became a practical 
working machine. 

In the case of the steam engine, it might be said that 
even a smaller feat than this remained to be accom- 
plished when Watt came upon the scene; since the 
Newcomen engine was actually a practical working 
apparatus. But the all-essential thing to remember 
is that this Newcomen engine was used for a single 
purpose. It supplied power for pumping water, and for 
nothing else. Neither did it have possibilities much 
beyond tliis, until the all-essential modification was 
suggested by Watt, of exhausting its steam into ex- 
terior space. 

This modification is in one sense a mere detail, yet 
it illustrates once more the force of Michelangelo's 
famous declaration that trifles make perfect; for when 
once it was tested, the whole practical character of the 
steam engine was changed. From a wasteful con- 
sumer of fuel, capable of running a pump at great ex- 
pense, it became at once a relatively economical user of 
energy, capable of performing almost any manner of 
work. 

Needless to say, its possibiHties in this direction were 
not immediately realized, in theory or in practise; yet 
the conquest that it made of almost the entire field of 
labor resulted in tlie most rapid transformation of in- 
dustrial conditions that the world has ever experienced. 
After all, then, there is but Httle injustice in that public 
verdict which remembers James Watt as the inventor, 
rather than as the mere perfecter, of the steam engine. 

[io6] 



CAPTIVE MOLECULES 

THE PERSONALITY OF JAMES WATT 

The man who occupies this all-important position in 
the industrial world demands a few more words as to 
his personality. His work we have sufficiently con- 
sidered, but before we pass on to the work of his suc- 
cessors, it will be worth our while to learn something 
more of the estimate placed upon the man himself. Let 
us quote, then, from some records written by men who 
were of the same generation. 

"Independently of his great attainments in mechanics, 
Mr. Watt was an extraordinary and in many respects a 
wonderful man. Perhaps no individual in his age 
possessed so much, or remembered what he had read 
so accurately and well. He had infinite quickness of ap- 
prehension, a prodigious memory, and a certain rec- 
tifying and methodizing power of understanding which 
extracted something precious out of all that was pre- 
sented to it. His stores of miscellaneous knowledge 
were immense, and yet less astonishing than the com- 
mand he had at all times over them. It seemed as if 
every subject that was casually started in conversation 
had been that which he had been last occupied in study- 
ing and exhausting; such was the copiousness, the pre- 
cision, and the admirable clearness of the information 
which he poured out upon it without effort or hesitation. 
Nor was this promptitude and compass of knowledge 
confined, in any degree, to the studies connected with 
his ordinary pursuits. 

"That he should have been minutely and extensively 
skilled in chemistry, and the arts, and in most of tlie 

[107] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

branches of physical science, might, perhaps, have 
been conjectured; but it could not have been inferred 
from his usual occupations, and probably is not gen- 
erally known, that he was curiously learned in many 
branches of antiquity, metaphysics, medicine, and 
etymology, and perfectly at home in all the details of 
architecture, music, and law. He was well acquainted, 
too, with most of the modem languages, and famiHar 
with their most recent Hterature. Nor was it at all ex- 
traordinary to hear the great mechanician and engineer 
detailing and expounding, for hours together, the meta- 
physical theories of the German logicians, or criticizing 
the measures or the matter of the German poetry. 

"It is needless to say, that with those vast resources, 
his conversation was at all times rich and instructive in 
no ordinary degree. But it was, if possible, still more 
pleasing than wise, and had all the charms of famiHarity, 
v^th all the substantial treasures of knowledge. No 
man could be more social in his spirit, less assuming 
or fastidious in his manners, or more kind and indulgent 
towards all who approached him. His talk, too, though 
Overflowing with information, had no resemblance to 
lecturing, or solemn discoursing; but, on the contrary, 
was full of colloquial spirit and pleasantry. He had a 
certain quiet and grave humor, which ran through 
most of his conversation, and a vein of temperate 
jocularity, which gave infinite zest and effect to the con- 
densed and inexhaustible information which formed 
its main staple and characteristic. There was a little 
air of affected testiness, and a tone of pretended rebuke 
and contradiction, which he used towards his younger 

[io8] 




JAMES WATT. 



CAPTIVE MOLECULES 

friends, that was always felt by them as an endearing 
mark of his kindness and familiarity, and prized ac- 
cordingly, far beyond all the solemn compliments that 
proceeded from the lips of authority. His voice was 
deep and powerful; though he commonly spoke in a 
low and somewhat monotonous tone, which harmonized 
admirably with the weight and brevity of his observations, 
and set off to the greatest advantage the pleasant anec- 
dotes which he delivered with the same grave tone, and 
the same calm smile playing soberly on his lips. 

''There was nothing of effort, indeed, or of impatience, 
any more than of pride or levity, in his demeanor; and 
there was a finer expression of reposing strength, and mild 
self-possession in his manner, than we ever recollect to 
have met with in any other person. He had in his char- 
acter the utmost abhorrence for all sorts of forwardness, 
parade, and pretension ; and indeed never failed to put all 
such impostors out of countenance, by the manly plainness 
and honest intrepidity of his language and deportment. 

''He was twice married, but has left no issue but one 
son, associated with him in his business and studies, 
and two grandchildren by a daughter who predeceased 
him. He was fellow of the Royal Societies both of Lon- 
don and Edinburgh, and one of the few EngHshmen 
who were elected members of the National Institute of 
France. All men of learning and of science were his 
cordial friends; and such was the influence of his mild 
character, and perfect fairness and liberality, even upon 
the pretender to these accomplishments, that he lived 
to disarm even envy itself, and died, we verily be- 
lieve, without a single enemy." 

[109] 



VI 

THE MASTER WORKER 

WE have already pointed out at some length 
that, in the hands of Watt, the steam 
engine came at once to be a relatively 
perfect apparatus, and that only three really important 
modifications have been applied to it since the day of its 
great perfecter. These modifications, as already named, 
are the doing away with the walking beam, the utiliza- 
tion of high pressure steam, and the development of the 
compound engine. Each of these developments re- 
quires a few words of explanation. 

The retention of the heavy walking beam for so long 
a time after the steam engine of Watt had been applied 
to the various purposes of machinery, illustrates the 
power of a pre-conceived idea. With the Newcomen 
engine this beam was an essential, since it was necessary 
to have a weight to assist in raising the piston. But with 
the introduction of steam rather than air as the actual 
power to push the piston, and in particular with the 
elaboration of the double-chamber cylinder, with steam 
acting equally on either side of the piston, the necessity 
for retaining this cumbersome contrivance no longer 
existed. Yet we find all the engines made by Watt 
himself, and nearly all those of his contemporaries, 
continuing to utilize this means of transmitting the 

[no] 



THE MASTER WORKER 

power of the piston. Even the road locomotive, as 
illustrated by that first wonderful one of Trevithick's 
and such colliery locomotives as ''Puffing Billy" and 
''Locomotion," utilized the same plan. It was not 
until almost a generation later that it became clear to 
the mechanics that in many cases, indeed in most 
cases, this awkward means of transmitting power was 
really a needlessly wasteful one, and that with the aid 
of fly-wheel and crank-shaft the thrust of the piston 
might be directly appHed to the wheel it was destined 
to turn, quite as well as through the intermediary 
channel of the additional lever. 

The utility of the beam has, indeed, still commended 
it for certain purposes, notably for the propulsion of 
side-wheel steamers, such as the familiar American 
ferryboat. But aside from such exceptional uses, the 
beam has practically passed out of existence. 

There was no new principle involved in effecting this 
change. It was merely another illustration of the famil- 
iar fact that it is difficult to do things simply. As a rule, 
inventors fumble for a long time with roundabout and 
complex ways of doing things, before a direct and simple 
method occurs to them. In other words, the highest 
development often passes from the complex to the simple, 
illustrating, as it were, an oscillation in the great law 
of evolution. So in this case, even so great an inventor 
as Watt failed to see the utiHty of doing away with the 
cumbersome structure which his own invention had made 
no longer a necessity, but rather a hindrance to the appli- 
cation of the steam engine. However, a new generation, 
no longer under the thraldom of the ideas of the great 

[III] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

inventor, was enabled to make the change, graduaily, 
but in the end effectively. 

HIGH-PRESSURE STEAM 

As regards the use of steam under high pressure, 
somewhat the same remarks apply, so far as concerns 
the conservatism of mankind, and the influence which a 
great mind exerts upon its generation. Just why Watt 
should have conceived an antagonism to the idea of 
high-pressure steam is not altogether clear. It has been 
suggested, indeed, that this might have been due to the 
fact that a predecessor of Watt had invented a high- 
pressure engine which did not use the principle of con- 
densation, but exhausted the steam into open space. 
As early as 1725, indeed, Leupold in his Theatrum 
Machinarum, had described such a non-condensing 
engine, which, had it been made practically useful, 
would have required a high pressure of steam. Partly 
through the influence of this work, perhaps, there came 
to be an association between the words high pressure 
and non-condensing, so that these terms are considered 
to be virtually synonymous; and since Watt's great 
contribution consisted of an appHcation of the idea of 
condensation, he was perhaps rendered antagonistic to 
the idea of high pressure, through this psychological 
suggestion. In any event, the antagonism unquestion- 
ably existed in his mind; though it has often enough 
been pointed out that this seems the more curious since 
high-pressure steam would so much better have facili- 
tated the appHcation of that other famous idea of 
Watt, the use of the expansive property of steam. 

[112] 



THE MASTER WORKER 

Curiously enough, however, the influence of Watt 
led to experiments in high-pressure steam through an 
indirect channel. The contemporary inventor, Trevi- 
thick, in connection with his partner. Bull, had made 
direct-acting pumping engines with an inverted cylinder, 
fixed in line with the pump rod, and actually dispens- 
ing with the beam. But as these engines used a jet of 
cold water in the exhaust pipe to condense the steam, 
Boulton and Watt brought suit successfully for in- 
fringement of their patent, and thus prevented Trevi- 
thick from experimenting further in that direction. 
He was obliged, therefore, to turn his attention to a 
different method, and probably, in part at least, in this 
way was led to introduce the non-condensing, relatively 
high-pressure engine. This was used about the year 
1800. At the same time somewhat similar experiments 
were made by OHver Evans in America. 

Both Trevithick and Evans applied their engines to 
the propulsion of road vehicles; and Trevithick is 
credited with being the first man who ran a steam 
locomotive on a track, — a feat which he accomplished 
as early as the year 1804. We are not here concerned 
with the details of this accomplishment, which will 
demand our attention in a later chapter, when we come 
to discuss the entire subject of locomotive transporta- 
tion. But it is interesting to recall that the possibilities 
of the steam engine were thus early realized, even 
though another generation elapsed before they were 
finally demonstrated to the satisfaction of the pubHc. 
It is particularly interesting to note that in his first loco- 
motive engine, Trevithick allowed the steam exhaust 
VOL. VI.— 8 [113] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

to escape into the funnel of the engine to increase the 
draught,~an expedient which was so largely responsible 
for Stephenson's success with his locomotive twenty 
years later, and which retains its utility in the case of 
the most highly developed modem locomotive. 

Trevithick was, however, entirely subordinated by 
the great influence of Watt, and the use of high pressure 
was in consequence discountenanced by the leading 
mechanical engineers of England for some decades. 
Meantime, in America, the initiative of Evans led to a 
much earlier general use of high-pressure steam. In 
due course, however, the advantages of steam under 
high pressure became evident to engineers everywhere, 
and its conquest was finally complete. 

The essential feature of super-heated steam is that it 
contains, as the name implies, an excess of heat beyond 
the quantity necessary to produce mere vaporiza- 
tion, and that the amount of water represented in this 
vapor is not the maximum possible under given con- 
ditions. In other words, the vapor is not saturated. It 
has been already explained that the amount of vapor 
that can be taken up in a given space imder a given 
pressure varies with the temperature of the space. 
Under normal conditions, when a closed space exists 
above a liquid, evaporation occurs from the surface of 
the liquid until the space is saturated, and no further 
evaporation can occur so long as the temperature and 
pressure are unchanged. If now the same space is heated 
to a higher degree, more vapor will be taken up until 
again the point of saturation is attained. But, obviously, 
if the space were disconnected with the liquid, and 

["4] 






OLD IDEAS AND NEW APPLIED TO BOILER CONSTRUCTION. 

The lower figure shows Robert Trevethick's famous boiler, used in operat- 
ing his^ locomotive about the year 1804. The original is preserved in the South 
Kensington Museum, London. The upper figure shows a modern tubular boiler, 
by way of contrast. 



THE MASTER WORKER 

then heated, it would acquire a capacity to take up 
more vapor, and so long as this capacity was latent, the 
vapor present would exist in a super-heated condition. 

It will be understood from what has been said 
before, that with all accessions of heat, the expansive 
power of the vapor is increased, — its molecules be- 
coming increasingly active; hence one of the very ob- 
vious advantages of super-heated steam for the purpose 
of pushing a piston. There are other advantages, 
however, w^hich are not at first sight so apparent, 
having to do with the properties of condensation. To 
understand these, we must pay heed for a few moments 
to the changes that take place in steam itself in the course 
of its passage through the cylinder, where it performs its 
work upon the piston. 

Many of these changes were not fully understood by 
the earlier experimenters, including Watt. Indeed the 
theory of the steam engine, or rather the general theory 
of the heat engine, was not worked out until the year 
1824, when the Frenchman Camot took the subject in 
hand, and performed a series of classical experiments, 
which led to a nearly complete theoretical exposition 
of the subject. It remained, however, for the students of 
thermo-dynamics, about the middle of the nineteenth 
century, with Clausius and Rankine at their head, to 
perfect the theory of the steam engine, and the general 
subject of the mutual relations of heat and mechanical 
work. 

We are not here concerned with any elaboration of 
details, but merely with a few of the essential principles 
which enter practically into the operation of the steam 

[115] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

engine. It appears, then, that when steam enters the 
cylinder and begins to thrust back the piston of the steam 
engine, a portion of the steam is immediately condensed 
on the walls of the cylinder, owing to the fact that 
previous condensation of steam has cooled these walls 
to a certain extent. We have already pointed out that 
Watt endeavored in his earlier experiments to over- 
come this difl&culty, by equalizing the temperature of the 
cylinder walls to the greatest practicable extent. 

Notwithstanding his efforts, however, and those of 
numberless later experimenters, it still remains true 
that under ordinary conditions, particularly if steam 
enters the cylinder at the saturation point, a very 
considerable condensation occurs. Indeed this may 
amount to from thirty to fifty per cent, of the entire 
bulk of water contained in the quantity of steam that 
enters the cylinder. This condensation obviously mili- 
tates against the expansive or working power of the steam. 
But now as the steam expands, pushing forward the 
cylinder, it becomes correspondingly rarefied, and im- 
mediately a portion of the condensed steam becomes 
again vaporized, and in so doing it takes up a certain 
amount of heat and renders it latent. This disadvan- 
tageous cycle of molecular transformations is very 
much modified in the case of super-heated steam, for 
the obvious reason that such steam may be very much 
below the saturation point, and hence requires a very 
much greater lowering of temperature in order to produce 
condensation of any portion of its mass. Without 
elaborating details, it suffices to note that in all highly 
efficient modem engines, steam is employed at a rela- 

[ii6] 



THE MASTER WORKER 

tively high pressure, and that sometimes this pressure 
becomes enormous. 

COMPOUND ENGINES 

As to the compound engine, that also, as has been 
pointed out, was invented by a contemporary of Watt, 
Jonathan Homblower by name, whose patent bears 
date of 1 781. In Homblower's engine, steam was 
first admitted to a small cylinder, and then, after per- 
forming its work on the piston, was allowed to escape, 
not into a condensing receptacle, but into a larger 
cylinder where it performed further work upon another 
piston. This was obviously an instance of the use of 
steam expansively, and it has been pointed out that, in 
consequence, Hornblower was the first to make use 
of this idea in practise, although it is said that Watt's 
experiments had even at that time covered this field. 
The application of the idea to the movement of the 
second cylinder, however, appears to have been original 
with Homblower. Certainly it owed nothing to Watt, 
who refused to accept the idea, and continued through- 
out his life to frown upon the compound engine. 

Nevertheless, the device had great utility, as subse- 
quent experiments were very fully to demonstrate. 
The compound engine was revived by Woolf in 1804, 
and his name rather than Homblower's is commonly 
associated with it. The latter experimenter demon- 
strated that the compound engine has two important 
merits as against the simple engine. One of these is 
that the sum of the two forces exerted by the joint ac- 
tion results in a more even and continuous pressure 

[117] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

throughout the cycle than could be accomplished by 
the action of a single cylinder. 

To understand this it must be recalled that when using 
the expansive property of steam, the piston thrust could 
not possibly be uniform, since the greatest pressure 
exerted by the steam would be exerted at the moment 
before it was shut off from the boiler, and its pressure 
must then decrease progressively, as it exerts more 
and more work upon the piston and becomes more 
expanded, thus obviously retaining less elastic energy. 
The operation of the fly-wheel largely compensates 
this difference of pressure in practise, but it would be 
obviously advantageous could the pressure be equalized ; 
and, as just stated, the compoimd engine tends to pro- 
duce this result. 

The second, and perhaps the more important merit 
of the compound engine is, that it is found in practise to 
keep the cylinders at a more imiform temperature. A 
moment's reflection makes it clear why this should be 
the case, since in a single-cylinder engine the exhaust 
connects with the cool condenser, whereas in the com- 
pound engine the exhaust from the first cylinder con- 
nects with the second cylinder at only slightly lower 
temperature. 

In many modem engines a third cylinder and some- 
times even a fourth is added, constituting what are 
called respectively triple-expansion and quadruple- 
expansion engines. The triple-expansion system is 
very generally employed, especially where it is peculiarly 
desirable to economize fuel, as, for example, in the case 
of ships. 

[ii8] 




COMPOUND ENGINES. 



The lower figure illustrates the use of a modern compound engine, di- 
rectly operating the propeller shaft of a steamship. The middle figure 
shows a similarly direct apphcation of power to the axes of paddle wheels. 
The upper figure shows the apphcation of power through a walking beam 
similar in principle to that of the original Newcomen and Watt engines. 



THE MASTER WORKER 

ROTARY ENGINES 

All these improvements, it will be observed, have 
to do with details that do not greatly modify the steam 
engine from the original type. The cylinder with its 
closely fitting piston, as introduced in the Newcomen 
engine, is retained and constitutes the essential mechan- 
ism through which the energy of steam is transferred 
into mechanical energy. But from a comparatively 
remote period the idea has prevailed that it might be 
possible to utilize a different principle; that, in short, 
if the steam instead of being made to press against a 
piston were allowed to rush against fan-like blades, 
adjusted to an axle, it might cause blades and axle to 
revolve, precisely as a windmill is made to revolve by 
the pressure of the wind, or the turbine wheel by the 
pressure of water. 

In a word, it has been believed that a turbine engine 
might be constructed, which would utilize the energy of 
the steam as advantageously as it is utilized in the pis- 
ton engine, and at the same time would communicate its 
power as a direct rotation, instead of as a straight thrust 
that must be translated into a rotary motion by means 
of a crank or other mechanism. 

In point of fact, James Watt himself invented such 
an engine, and patented it in 1782, though there is no 
evidence that he ever constmcted even a working model. 
His patent specifications show *^a piston in the form 
of a closely-fitting radial arm, projecting from an axial 
shaft in a cylinder. An abutment, arranged as a flap 
is hinged near a recess in the side of the cylinder, and 

[119] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

swings while remaining in contact with the piston. 
Steam is admitted to the chamber on one side of the 
flap, and so causes an unbalanced pressure upon the 
radial arm." 

This arrangement has been re-invented several times. 
Essentially the same principle is utilized by Joshua 
Routledge, whose name is well known in connection 
with the engineer's slide-rule. A model of this engine 
is preserved in the South Kensington Museum, and the 
apparatus is described in the catalogue of the Museum 
as follows: 

^^The piston revolves on a shaft passing through the 
centre of the cylinder casing. The flap or valve hinged 
to the casing, with its free end resting upon the piston, 
acts like the bottom of an ordinary engine cylinder. 
The steam inlet port is on one side of the hinge, and 
the exhaust port on the other. The admission of steam 
is controlled by a side valve, actuated by an eccentric 
on the fly-wheel shaft, so that the engine could work ex- 
pansively, and the steam pressure resisting the lifting 
of the flap would also be greatly reduced, so diminishing 
the knock at this point, which, however, would always 
be a serious cause of trouble. The exhaust steam 
passes down to a jet condenser, provided with a supply 
of water from a containing tank, from which the in- 
jection is admitted through a regulating valve. The air 
pump, which draws the air and water from the condenser 
and discharges them through a pipe passing out at the 
end of the tank, is a rotary machine constructed like the 
engine and driven by spur gearing from the fly-wheel 
shaft. Some efforts have been made to prevent leakage 

[120] 



THE MASTER WORKER 

by forming grooves in the sides of the revolving piston 
and filling them with soft packing." 

Sundry other rotary engines, some of them actual 
working models, are to be seen at the South Kensing- 
ton Museum. There is, for example, one invented by the 
Rev. Patrick Bell, a gentleman otherwise known to 
fame as one of the earHest inventors of a practical reap- 
ing machine. In this apparatus, '^A metal disc is 
secured to a horizontal axis carried in bearings, and the 
lower half of the disc is enclosed by a chamber of 
circular section having its axis a semi-circle. One end 
of this chamber is closed and provided with a pipe 
through which steam enters, the exhaust taking place 
through the open end. The disc is provided with three 
holes, each fitted with a circular plate turning on an 
axis radial to the disc, and these plates when set at 
right angles to the disc become pistons in the lower 
enclosing chamber. Toothed gearing is arranged to 
rotate these pistons into the plane of the disc on leaving 
the cylinder and back again immediately after entering, 
locking levers retaining them in position during the in- 
tervals. The steam pressure upon these pistons forces 
the disc round, but the engine is non-expansive, and al- 
though some provision for packing has been made, the 
leakage must have been considerable and the wear and 
tear excessive." 

It is stated that almost the same arrangement was 
proposed by Lord Armstrong in 1838 as a water motor, 
and that a model subsequently constructed gave over 
five horse-power at thirty revolutions per minute, with 
an efficiency of ninety-five per cent. 

[121] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

Another working model of a rotary engine shown at 
the Museum is one loaned by Messrs. Fielding and Piatt 
in 1888. '^The action of this engine depends upon the 
oscillating motion which the cross of a universal joint 
has relative to the containing jaws when the system is 
rotated. 

^^Two shafts are set at an angle of 165 deg. to each 
other and connected by a Hooke's joint; one serves as 
a pivot, the power being taken from the other. Four 
curved pistons are arranged on the cross-piece, two 
pointing towards one shaft and two towards the other, 
and on each shaft or jaw are formed two curved steam 
cylinders in which the curved pistons work. The steam 
enters and leaves the base of each cylinder through 
ports in the shaft, which forms a cyHndrical valve 
working in the bearing as a seating. 

"On the revolution of the shafts the pistons recipro- 
cate in their cylinders in much the same way as in an 
ordinary engine, and the valve arrangement is such 
that while each piston is receding from its cyHnder the 
steam pressure is driving it, and during the in-stroke 
of each, its cyKnder is in communication with the ex- 
haust. There are thus four single-acting cylinders 
making each a double stroke for one revolution of the 
driving-shaft. The engine has no dead centres, and has 
been at 1,000 revolutions per minute." 

It is not necessary to describe other of the rotary 
engines that have been made along more or less similar 
Hues by numerous inventors, models of which are for 
the most part, as in the case of those just described, to 
be seen more commonly in museums than in practical 

[122] 




ROTARY ENGINES. 



The three types of rotary engines here shown are similar in principle, and none 
of them is of great practical value, though the upper figure shows an engine that has 
met with a certain measure of commercial success. 



THE MASTER WORKER 

workshops. Reference may be made, however, to a 
rotary engine which was invented by a Mr. Hoffman, 
of Buffalo, New York, about the beginning of the 
twentieth century," an example of which was put into 
actual operation in running the machinery of a shop 
in Buffalo, in 1905. 

This engine consists of a solid elliptical shaft of steel, 
fastened to an axle at one side of its centre, which axis 
is also the shaft of the cylinder, which revolves about 
the central ellipse in such a way that at one part of the 
revolution the cylinder surface fits tightly against the 
ellipse, while the opposite side of the cylinder supplies 
a free chamber between the elHpse and the cylinder walls. 
Running the length of the cylinder are two curved pieces 
of steel, Hke longitudinal sections of a tube. These 
flanges are adjusted at opposite sides of the cylinder and 
so arranged that their sides at all times press against the 
ellipse, alternately retreating into the substance of the 
cylinder, and coming out into the free chamber. Steam 
is admitted to the free chamber through one end of the 
shaft of ellipse and cylinder and exhausted through 
the other end. The pressure of the steam against first 
one end and then the other of the flanges suppHes the 
motive power. This pressure acts always in one di- 
rection, and the entire apparatus revolves, the cylinder, 
however, revolving more rapidly than the central ellipse. 

For this engine the extravagant claim is made that 
there is no Hmit to its speed of revolution, within the 
limit of resistance of steel to centrifugal force. It has 
been estimated that a locomotive might be made to run 
two hundred or three hundred miles an hour without 

[123] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

difficulty, with the Hoffman engine. Such estimates, 
however, are theoretical, and it remains to be seen what 
the engine can do in practise when applied to a variety 
of tasks, and what are its limitations. Certainly the 
apparatus is at once ingenious and simple in principle, 
and there is no obvious theoretical reason why it should 
not have an important future. 

TURBINE ENGINES 

Whatever the future may hold, however, it remains 
true that the first practical solution of the problem of 
securing direct rotary motion from the action of steam, 
on a really commercial scale, was solved with an ap- 
paratus very different from any of those just described, 
the inventor being an Englishman, Mr. C. A. Parsons, 
and the apparatus the steam turbine, the first model of 
which he constructed in 1884, and which began to 
attract general attention in the course of the ensuing 
decade. Public interest was fully aroused in 1897, 
when Mr. Parson's boat, the Turhinia, equipped with 
engines of this type, showed a trial speed of 32I knots 
per hour, a speed never hitherto attained by any other 
species of water craft. More recently, a torpedo boat, 
the Viper, equipped with engines developing about ten 
thousand horse-power, attained a speed of 35 J knots. 
The success of these small boats led to the equipment 
of large vessels with the turbine, and on April first, 
1905, the first transatlantic Hner propelled by this form 
of engine steamed into the harbor of Halifax, Nova 
Scotia. 

[124] 



THE MASTER WORKER 

This first ocean liner equipped with the turbine en- 
gine is called the Victorian. She is a ship five hundred 
and forty feet long and sixty feet wide, carrying fifteen 
hundred passengers. The Victorian had shown a speed 
of 19I knots an hour on her trial trip, and it had been 
hoped that she would break the transatlantic record. 
On her first trip, however, she encountered adverse 
winds and seas, and did not attain great speed. Her 
performance was, however, considered entirely satisfac- 
tory and creditable. 

In the ensuing half-decade several large ships were 
equipped with engines of the same type, the most fa- 
mous of these being the Cunard liners, Carmania, Lusi- 
tania, and Mauretania. The two last-named ships are 
sister craft, and they are the largest boats of any kind 
hitherto constructed. The Lusitania was first launched 
and she entered immediately upon a record-breaking 
career, only to be surpassed within a few months by 
the Mauretania, which soon acquired all records for 
speed and endurance. 

Fuller details as to the performance of these vessels 
will be found in another place. Here we are of course 
concerned with the Parsons turbine engine itself rather 
than with its applications. 

This turbine engine constitutes the first really impor- 
tant departure from the old-type steam engine, thus 
realizing the dream of the seventeenth-century Italian, 
Branca, to which reference was made above. Mr. 
Parsons' elaboration of the idea developed a good deal 
of complexity as regards the number of parts involved, 
yet his engine is of the utmost simplicity in principle. 

[125] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

It consists of a large number of series of small blades, 
each series arranged about a drum which revolves. 
Between the rings of revolving blades are adjusted cor- 
responding rings of fixed blades, which project from 
the casing to the cylinder, and by means of which the 
s-team is regulated in direction, so that it strikes at the 
proper angle against the revolving blades of the turbine. 

In practise, three series of cyHndrical drums are used, 
each containing a large number of rings of blades of 
uniform size; but each successive drum having longer 
blades, to accommodate the greater volume of the ex- 
panding steam. The steam is fed against the first series 
of blades in gusts, which may be varied in frequency 
and length to meet the requirements of speed. After 
impinging on the first circle of blades, the steam passes 
to the next under shghtly reduced pressure, and the 
pressure is thus successively stepped down from one 
set of blades to another until it is ultimately reduced from 
say two hundred pounds to the square inch, to one 
pound to the square inch before it passes to the condenser 
and ceases to act. 

There is thus a fuller utilization of the kinetic energy 
of the gas, through carrying it from high to low pres- 
sure, than is possible with the old type of cylinder-and- 
piston engine. On the other hand, there is a constant 
loss due to the fact that the blades of the turbine can not 
fit with absolute tightness against the cylinder walls. 
The net result is that the compound turbine, as at pres- 
ent developed, appears to have about the same efficiency 
as the best engine of the old type. 

One capital advantage of the turbine is that it keeps 

[126] 



THE MASTER WORKER 

the cylinder walls at a more uniform temperature than 
is possible even with a compound engine of the old type. 
Another advantage is that the power of the turbine 
is applied directly to cause rotation of the shaft, where- 
as no satisfactory means has ever been discovered hither- 
to of making the action of the steam engine rotary, ex- 
cept with the somewhat disadvantageous crank- shaft. 
This fact of adjustment of the turbine blades to the re- 
volving shaft seems to make this form of engine par- 
ticularly adapted to use in steamships. It is also highly 
adapted to revolving the shaft of a dynamo, and has 
been largely applied to this use. Needless to say, 
however, it may be applied to any other form of machin- 
ery. It would be difficult at the present stage of its de- 
velopment to predict the extent to which the turbine 
will ultimately supersede the old type of engine. Its 
progress has already been extraordinary, however, as an 
engineer pointed out in the London Times of August 
14, 1907, in the following words: 

"When the steam turbine was introduced by Mr. 
Parsons some 25 years ago, in the form of a little model, 
which is now in the South Kensington Museum, 
and the rotor of which may easily be held stationary 
by the hand against the fuU blast of the steam, who would 
have been rash enough to predict, except perhaps the 
far-seeing inventor himself, that a vessel 760 feet long, 
loaded to 37,000 tons displacement, drawing 32 ft. 9 in. 
of water, and providing accommodation for 2,500 people, 
could be propelled at a speed of 24.5 knots per hour, 
which it is hoped she may maintain over the 3,000 
miles of the Atlantic voyage? 

[127] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

^'From this small modelj which will in time become 
as historic as the Rocket of Stephenson, and which is 
only some few inches in diameter, the turbine has been 
developed gradually in size. The cylindrical casings 
which take the place of the compHcated machinery of 
the piston engine in the engine room of the Lusitania 
contain drums, which in the high-pressure turbines are 
8 feet in diameter and in the low-pressure ii ft. 8 in., 
and from which thousands of curved blades project, the 
longest of which are 22 inches, and against which the 
steam impinges in its course from the boiler to the con- 
denser. 

''Not only has the steam turbine justified the con- 
fidence of those who have labored so successfully in its 
development, but no other great invention has pro- 
ceeded from the laboratory stage to such an important 
position in the engineering world in such a short space 
of time. This would not have happened if some in- 
herent drawback, such as lack of economy in steam 
consumption, existed, and as the turbine has been 
proved to be, for land purposes, very economical, there 
seems to be no reason to doubt that marine turbines, 
working as they do at full load almost continually, 
will show likewise that the coal bill is not increased, 
but perhaps diminished by their use. 

"The records of the vibrations of the hull which 
were taken during the trials by Schlick's instruments 
showed that the vertical vibration was 60 per minute 
on the run, which was due to the propellers, and which 
may be further modified. The horizontal vibration 
was almost unnoticeable, while the behavior of the 

[128] 




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THE MASTER WORKER 

ship in the heavy seas she encountered in her long-dis- 
tance runs was good, the roll from side to side having a 
period of i8 seconds. The great length of this ship 
and the gyrostatic action of the heavy rotating masses 
of the machinery ought to render her almost insensible 
to the heaviest Atlantic rollers; certainly as far as 
pitching is concerned." 

A more general comment upon the turbine engine, 
with particular reference to its use in America, is made 
by Mr. Edward H. Sanborn in an article on Motive 
Power Appliances, in the Twelfth Census Report of 
the United States, Vol. X. part IV. 

"Apart from its demonstrated economy," says Mr. 
Sanborn, "other important advantages are claimed for 
the steam turbine, some of which are worthy of brief 
mention. 

"There is an obvious advantage in economy of space 
as compared with the reciprocating engine. The largest 
steam turbine constructed in the United States is one of 
3,000 horse-power, which is installed in the power 
house of the Hartford Electric Light Company, Hart- 
ford, Conn. The total weight of this motor is 28,000 
pounds, its length over all is 19 feet 8 inches, and its 
greatest diameter six feet. With the generator to which 
it is directly connected, it occupies a floor space of 2,2> 
feet 3 inches long by 8 feet 9 inches wdde. 

"Friction is reduced to a minimum in the steam tur- 
bine, owing to the absence of sliding parts and the small 
number of bearings. The absence of internal lubrica- 
tion is also an important consideration, especially when 
it is desired to use condensers. 
VOL. vn.— 9 [129] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

''As there are no reciprocating parts in a steam tur- 
bine, and as a perfect balance of its rotating parts is 
absolutely essential to its successful operation, vibration 
is reduced to such a small element that the simplest 
foundations will suffice, and it is safe to locate steam 
turbines on upper floors of a factory if this be desirable 
or necessary. 

"The perfect balance of the moving parts and the 
extreme simplicity of construction tend to minimize the 
wear and increase the life of a turbine, and at the same 
time to reduce the chance of interruption in its operation 
through derangement of, or damage to, any of its essen- 
tial parts. 

"Although hardly beyond the stage of its first advent 
in the motive-power fields the steam turbine has met 
with much favor, and there is promise of its wide use for 
the purposes to which it is particularly adapted. At 
present, however, its uses are restricted to service that 
is continuous and regular, its particular adaptabiHty 
being for the driving of electrical generators, pumps, 
ventilating fans, and similar work, especially where 
starting under load is not essential. 

"Steam turbines are now being built in the United 
States in all sizes up to 3,000 horse-power. Their use 
abroad covers a longer period and has become more 
general. The largest turbines thus far attempted are 
those of the Metropolitan District Electric Traction 
Company, of London, embracing four units of 10,000 
horse-power each. Several turbines of large size have 
been operated successfully in Germany." 

It should be added that the compound turbine wheel 

[130] 



THE MASTER WORKER 

of Parsons is not the only turbine wheel that has 
proved commercially valuable. There is a turbine con- 
sisting of a single ring of revolving blades, the invention 
of Dr. Gustav De Laval, which has proved itself capable 
of competing with the old type of engine. To make this 
form of single turbine operate satisfactorily, it is neces- 
sary to have steam under high pressure, and to generate 
a very high speed of revolution. In practice, the De 
Laval machines sometimes attain a speed of thirty 
thousand revolutions per minute. This is a much 
higher rate of speed than can advantageously be utiHzed 
directly in ordinary machinery, and consequently the 
shaft of this machine is geared to another shaft in such a 
way as to cause the second shaft to revolve much more 
slowly. 



[131] 



VET 

GAS AND OIL ENGINES 

JUST at the time when the type of piston-and- 
cylinder engine has thus been challenged, it has 
chanced that a new motive power has been applied 
to the old type of engine, through the medium of heated 
gas. The idea of such utilization of a gas other than 
water vapor is by no means new, but there have been 
practical difficulties in the way of the construction of a 
commercial engine to make use of the expansive power 
of ordinary gases. 

The principle involved is based on the familiar fact 
that a gas expands on being heated and contracts when 
cool. Theoretically, then, all that is necessary is to heat 
a portion of air confined in a cylinder, to secure the ad- 
vantage of its expansion, precisely as the expansion of 
steam is utiHzed, by thrusting forward a piston. Such 
an apparatus constitutes a so-called ^^ caloric" or hot- 
air engine. As long ago as the year 1807 Sir G. Cayley 
in England produced a motor of this type, in which the 
heated air passed directly from the furnace to the 
cylinder, where it did work while expanding until its 
pressure was not greater than that of the atmosphere, 
when it was discharged. The chief mechanical diffi- 
culty encountered resulted from the necessity for the 
employment of very high temperatures; and for a long 

[132] 



GAS AND OIL ENGINES 

time the engine had no great commercial utility. The 
idea was revived, however, about three-quarters of a 
century later and an engine operated on Cayley's 
principle was commercially introduced in England by 
Mr. Buckett. This engine has a cold-air cylinder above 
the crank-shaft and a large hot-air cylinder below, while 
the furnace is on one side enclosed in an air-tight 
chamber. The fuel is supplied as required through a 
valve and distributing cone arranged above the furnace 
and provided with an air lock in which the fuel is 
stored. At about the time when this hot-air engine was 
introduced, however, gas and oil engines of another and 
more important type were developed, as we shall see 
in a moment. 

Meantime, an interesting effort to utilize the expan- 
sive property of heated air was made by Dr. Stirling in 
1826 ; his engine being one in which heat was distributed 
by means of a displacer which moved the mass of air 
to and fro between the hot and cold portions of the ap- 
paratus. He also compressed the air before heating it, 
thus making a distinct advance in the economy and com- 
pactness of the engine. From an engineering stand- 
point his design has further interest in that it was a 
practical attempt to construct an engine working on the 
principle of the theoretically perfect heat engine, in 
which the cycle of operations is closed, the same mass of 
air being used throughout. In the theoretically perfect 
heat engine, it may be added, the cycle of operations may 
be reversed, there being no loss of energy involved ; but 
in practice, of course, an engine cannot be con- 
structed to meet this ideal condition, as there is neces- 

[^33] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

sarily some loss through dissipation of heat. Dr. 
Stirling's practical engine had its uses, but could not 
compete with the steam engine in the general field of 
mechanical operations to which that apparatus is 
appHed. 

Another important practical experimenter in the con- 
struction of hot-air engines was John Ericsson, who 
in 1824 constructed an engine somewhat resembling 
the early one of Cayley, and in 1852 built caloric engines 
on such a scale as to be adapted to the propulsion of 
ships. Notwithstanding the genius of Ericsson, how- 
ever, engines of this type did not prove commercially 
successful on a large scale, and in subsequent decades 
the hot-air motors constructed for practical purposes 
seldom exceeded one horse-power. Such small engines 
as these are comparatively efficient and absolutely safe, 
and they are thoroughly adapted for such domestic 
purposes as light pumping. 

The great difficulty with all these engines operated 
with heated air has been, as already suggested, that 
their efiiciency of action is Hmited by the difficulties 
incident to applying high temperatures to large masses of 
the gas. There is, however, no objection to the super- 
heating of small quantities of gas, and it was early sug- 
gested that this might be accomplished by exploding a 
gaseous mixture within a cylinder. It was observed 
by the experimenters of the seventeenth century that an 
ordinary gun constitutes virtually an internal-com- 
bustion engine; and such experimenters as the Dutch- 
man Huyghens, and the Frenchmen Hautefeuille and 
Papin, attempted to make practical use of the power set 

[134] 



GAS AND OIL ENGINES 

free by the explosion of gunpowder, their experiments 
being conducted about the years 1678 to 1689. Their 
results, however, were not such as to give them other 
than an historical interest. About a century later, in 
1794, the Englishman Robert Street suggested the use of 
inflammable gases as explosives, and ever since that time 
there have been occasional experimenters along that 
line. In 1823 Samuel Brown introduced a vacuum 
gas engine for raising water by atmospheric pressure. 
The first fairly practical gas engine, however, was that 
introduced by J. J. E. Lenoir, who in 1850 proposed an 
engine working with a cycle resembling that of a steam 
engine. His engine patented in i860 proved to be a 
fairly successful apparatus. This engine of Lenoir 
prepared the way for gas engines that have since be- 
come so enormously important. Its method of action is 
this : 

*'To start the engine, the fly-wheel is pulled round, 
thus moving the piston, which draws into the cylinder a 
mixture of gas and air through about half its stroke; the 
mixture is then exploded by an electric spark, and pro- 
pels the piston to the end of its stroke, the pressure 
meanwhile falling, by cooling and expansion, to that of 
the atmosphere when exhaust takes place. In the re- 
turn stroke the process is repeated, the action of the en- 
gine resembling that of the double-acting steam engine, 
and having a one-stroke cycle. The cylinder and 
covers are cooled by circulating water. The firing 
electricity was supplied by two Bunsen batteries and an 
induction coil, the circuit being completed at the right 
intervals by contact pieces on an insulating disc on the 

[135] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

erank-shaft; the ignition spark leaped across the space 
between two wires carried about one-sixth of an inch 
apart in a porcelain holder." 

In 1865 Mons. P. Hugon patented an engine similar 
to that of Lenoir, except that ignition was accompHshed 
by an external flame instead of by electricity. The 
ignition flame was carried to and fro in a cavity inside 
a slide valve, moved by a cam so as to get a rapid cut-off, 
and permanent lights were maintained at the ends of the 
valve to re-light the flame-ports after each explosion. 
The gas was suppHed to the cylinder by rubber bellows, 
worked by an eccentric on the crank-shaft. This en- 
gine could be operated satisfactorily, except as to cost, 
but the heavy gas consumption made it uneconomical. 

An important improvement in this regard was intro- 
duced by the Germans, Herrn. E. Langen and N. A. 
Otto, who under patents bearing date of 1866 introduced 
a so-called '^free" piston arrangement — that is to say 
an arrangement by which the piston depends for its ac- 
tion partly upon the momentum of a fly-wheel. This 
principle had been proposed for a gas engine as early 
as 1857, but the first machine to demonstrate its feasibil- 
ity was that of Langen and Otto. Their engine greatly 
decreased the gas consumption and hence came to be 
regarded as the first commercially successful gas engine. 
It was, however, noisy and limited to small sizes. The 
cycle of operations of an engine of this type is de- 
scribed as follows: 

" (a) The piston is lifted about one-tenth of its travel 
by the momentum of the fly-wheel, thus drawing in a 
charge of gas and air. 

[136] 




GAS AND OIL ENGINES. 



Lower right-hand figure, a very early type of commercially successful gas engine. It 
has a "free" piston, an arrangement that was first proposed for a gas engine in 1857, but only 
brought into practical form by Langen & Otto under their patent of 1866. Upper figure, the 
gas engine patented by Lenoir in i860, one of the very first practically successful engines. 
Lower left-hand figure, a sectional view of a modern gas engine of the type used as the motor 



J. 1_ _•! . 



GAS AND OIL ENGINES 

"(b) The charge is ignited by flame carried in by a 
slide valve. 

''(c) Under the impulse of the explosion, the piston 
shoots upward nearly to the top of the cylinder, the 
pressure in which falls by expansion to about 4 lbs. 
absolute, while absorbing the energy of the piston. 

''(d) The piston descends by its own weight and the 
atmospheric pressure, and in doing so causes a roller- 
clutch on a spur-wheel gearing with a rack on the piston- 
rod to engage, so that the fly-wheel shaft shall be driven 
by the piston; during this down-stroke the pressure 
increases from 4 lbs. absolute to that of the atmosphere, 
and averages 7 lbs. per square inch effective throughout 
the stroke. 

" (e) When the piston is near the bottom of the cylin- 
der, the pressure rises above atmospheric, and the stroke 
is completed by the weight of the piston and rack, and 
the products of combustion are expelled. 

"(f) The fly-wheel now continues running freely till 
its speed, as determined by a centrifugal governor, falls 
below a certain Kmit when a trip gear causes the piston 
to be lifted the short distance required to recommence 
the cycle. 

"Ignition is performed by an external gas jet, near a 
pocket in the slide valve by which the charge is admitted; 
this pocket carries flame to the charge, thus igniting it 
without allowing any escape. The valve also connects 
the interior of the cylinder with the exhaust pipe, and a 
valve in the latter controlled by the governor throttles 
the discharge, and so defers the next stroke until the 
speed has fallen below normal. To run the engine empty 

[137] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

about four explosions per minute are necessary, and 
at full power 30 to 35 are made, so that about 28 ex- 
plosions per minute are available for useful work under 
the control of the governor." 

The definitive improvement in this gas engine was 
introduced in 1876 by Dr. N. A. Otto, when he com- 
pressed the explosive mixture in the working cylinder 
before igniting it. This expedient — so all-important 
in its results — had been suggested by William Bamett 
in 1838, but at that time gas engines were not sufficiently 
developed to make use of the idea. Now, however. Dr. 
Otto demonstrated that by compressing the gas before 
exploding it a much more diluted mixture can be fired, 
and that this gives a quieter explosion, and a more sus- 
tained pressure during the working stroke, while as the 
engine runs at a high speed the fly-wheel action is gener- 
ally sufficient to correct the fluctuations arising from 
there being but one explosion for four strokes of the 
piston. 

In this perfected engine, then, the method of opera- 
tion is as follows: 

The piston is pulled forward with the application of 
some outside force, which in practice is supplied by the 
inertia of the fly-wheel, or in starting the engine by the 
action of a crank with which every user of an automobile 
is familiar. In being pulled forward, the piston draws 
gas into the cylinder; as the piston returns, this gas is 
compressed; the compressed gas, constituting an 
explosive mixture, is then ignited by a piece of in- 
candescent metal or by an electric spark ; the exploding 
gas expands, pushing the piston forward, this being the 

[138] 



GAS AND OIL ENGINES 

only thrust during which work is done; the returning 
piston expels the expanded gas, completing the cycle. 
Thus there are three ineffective piston thrusts to one 
effective thrust. Nevertheless, the engine has proved 
a useful one for many purposes. 

This so-called Otto cycle has been adopted in almost 
all gas and oil engines, the later improvements being 
in the direction of still higher compression, and in the 
substitution of lift for slide valves. There has been a 
steady increase in the size and power of such engines, 
the large ones usually introducing two or more working 
cylinders so as to secure uniform driving. Cheap 
forms of gas have been employed such as those made by 
decomposing water by incandescent fuel, and it has 
been proved possible thus to operate gas-power plants on 
a commercial scale in competition with the most eco- 
nomical steam installations. 

A practical modification of vast importance was in- 
troduced when it was suggested that a volatile oil be 
employed to supply the gas for operation in an internal 
combustion engine. There was no new principle in- 
volved in this idea, and the Otto cycle was still employed 
as before; but the use of the volatile oil — either a 
petroleum product or alcohol — made possible the com- 
pact portable engine with which everyone is nowadays 
familiar through its use in automobiles and motor boats. 
The oil commonly used is gasoHne which is supplied to 
the cylinder through a so-called carburettor in which 
the vapors of gasoline are combined with ordinary air to 
make an explosive mixture. The introduction of this 
now familiar type of motor is to a large extent due to 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

Herr G. Daimler, who in 1884 brought out a light 
and compact high-speed oil engine. About ten years 
later Messrs. Panhard and Levassor devised the form 
of motor which has since been generally adopted. Few 
other forms of mechanisms are better known to the 
general public than the oil engine with its two, four, 
six, or even eight cyKnders, as used in the modem 
automobile. As everyone is aware, it furnishes the 
favorite type of motor, combining extraordinary power 
with relative Hghtness, and making it feasible to carry 
fuel for a long journey in a receptacle of small compass. 

With the gas engines a complication arises precisely 
opposite to that which is met with in the case of the cyl- 
inder of the steam engine — the tendency, namely, to 
overheating of the cylinder. To obviate this it is cus- 
tomary to have the cylinder surrounded by a water 
jacket, though air cooling is used in certain types of 
machines. About fifty per cent, of the total heat other- 
wise available is lost through this unavoidable expedient. 

The rapid introduction of the gas engine in recent 
years suggests that this type of engine may have a 
most important future. It has even been predicted 
that within a few years most trans- Atlantic steamers will 
be equipped with this type of engine, producing their 
own gas in transit. It is possible, then, that through 
this medium the old piston-and-cylinder engine may 
retain its supremacy, as against the turbine. For the 
moment, at any rate, the gas engine is gaining popu- 
larity, not merely in its application to the automobile, 
but for numerous types of small stationary engines as 
well. 

[140] 



GAS AND OIL ENGINES 

In this connection it will be interesting to quote the 
report of the Special Agent of the Twelfth Census of 
the United States, as showing the status of gas engines 
and steam engines in the year 1902. 

"The decade between 1890 and 1900," he says, 
"was a period of marked development in the use of gas 
engines, using that term to denote all forms of internal 
combustible engines, in which the propelling force is 
the explosion of gaseous or vaporous fuel in direct con- 
tact with a piston within a closed cylinder. This group 
embraces those engines using ordinary illuminating gas, 
natural gas, and gas made in special producers in- 
stalled as a part of the power plant, and also vaporised 
gasoline or kerosene. This form of power for the first 
time is an item of consequence in the returns of the 
present census, and the very large increase in the 
horse-power in 1900 as compared with 1890 indi- 
cates the growing popularity of this class of motive 
power. 

"In 1890 the number of gas engines in use in manufac- 
turing plants was not reported, but their total power 
amounted to only 8,930 horse-power, or one-tenth of one 
per cent of the total power utilized in manufacturing 
operations. In 1900, however, 14,884 gas engines were 
reported, with a total of 143,850 horse-power, or 1.3 
per cent of the total power used for manufacturing pur- 
poses. This increase from 8,930 horse-power to 143, 
850 horse-power, a gain of 134,920 horse-power, is pro- 
portionately the largest increase in any form of primary 
power show^n by a comparison of the figures of the 

[141] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

Eleventh and Twelfth censuses, amounting to 1,510.9 
per cent. 

"Within the past decade, and more particularly 
during the past five years, there has been a marked in- 
crease in the use of this power in industrial establish- 
ments for driving machinery, for generating electricity, 
and for other kindred uses. At the same time, internal- 
combustion engines have increased in popularity for 
uses apart from manufacturing, and the amount of this 
kind of power in use for all purposes in 1900 was, doubt- 
less, very much larger than indicated by the figures 
relating to manufacturing plants alone. 

"The average horse-power per gas engine in 1900 
was 9.7 horse-power. There are no available statis- 
tics upon which to base a comparison of this average 
with the average for 1890, but it is doubtful if there has 
been any very material change in ten years; for while 
gas engines are built in much larger sizes than ever 
before, there has been also a great increase in the num- 
ber of small engines for various purposes. 

"The large increase in the use of internal-combus- 
tion engines has been due to the rapid improvements that 
have been made in them, their increased efficiency and 
economy, their decreased cost, and the wider range of 
adaptabihty that has been made practicable. 

"Steam still continues to be preeminently the power 
of greatest importance, and the census returns indicate 
that the proportion of steam to the total of all powers 
has increased very largely in the past thirty years. In 
1870 steam furnished 1,215,711 horse-power, or 51.8 
per cent of a total of 2,346,142; in 1880 the amount of 

[142] 



GAS AND OIL ENGINES 

steam power used was 2,185,458 horse-power out of a 
total of 3,410,837, or 64.1 per cent; in 1890 out of an 
aggregate of 5,954,655 horse-power, 4,581,595, or 76.9 
per cent was steam; while in 1900 steam figured to the 
extent of 8,742,416 horse-power, or 77.4 per cent, in a 
total of 11,300,081. This increase in thirty years, from 
51.8 per cent to 77.4 per cent of the total power, shows 
how much more rapidly the use of steam power has 
increased than other primary sources of power. 

'^The tendency toward larger units in the use of 
steam power is shown inadequately by the increase in 
the average horse-power per engine from 39 horse- 
power in 1880, to 51 horse-power in 1890, and 56 horse- 
power in 1900. 

"The tendency toward great operations which has 
been such a conspicuous feature of industrial progress 
during the past ten years, has shown itself strikingly in 
the use of units of larger capacity in nearly every form 
of machinery, and nowhere has this tendency been more 
marked than in the motive power by which the machinery 
is driven. x\t the same time there has been an increase 
in the use of small units, which tends to destroy the true 
tendency in steam engineering in these statistics. For 
example, a steam plant consisting of one or more units 
of several thousand horse-power may also embrace a 
nmnber of small engines of only a few horse-power each, 
the use of which is necessitated by the magnitude of the 
plant, for the operation of mechanical stokers, the 
driving of draft fans, coal and ash conveyors, and other 
work requiring power in small units. On this account 
the average horse-power of steam engines in use at 

[143] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

different census periods fails to afford a true basis for 
measuring progress toward larger units during the past 
ten years, 

^^Developments of the past few years in the distribu- 
tion of power by the use of electric motors have served 
to accelerate the tendency toward larger steam units and 
the elimination of small engines in large plants and to 
change completely the conditions just described. For 
example : In one of the largest power plants in the world, 
which is now being installed, all the stokers, blowers, 
conveyors, and other auxiHary machinery are to be 
driven by electric motors. Such rapidly changing con- 
ditions tend to invalidate any comparisons of statis- 
tical averages deduced from figures for periods even 
but a few years apart. 

^* Comparison of two important industries will il- 
lustrate the foregoing. The average horse-power 
of the steam engine used in the cotton mills of the 
United States in 1890 was 198, and in 1900 it was 300. 

^^In the iron and steel industry the average horse- 
power per engine in 1890 was 171, and in 1900 it was 
235. In the cotton mills the use of single large units of 
motive power, with few auxiliary engines of small capac- 
ity, gives the largest horse-power per engine of any in- 
dustry; while in the iron and steel industry the average 
of the motive power proper, although probably larger 
than in the manufacture of cotton goods, is reduced by 
the large number of small engines which are used for 
auxiliary purposes in every iron and steel plant." 

It will be understood that the object of exploding the 
mixed gases in the oil engine is to produce sudden heat- 

[144] 



GAS AND OIL ENGINES 

ing of the entire gas. There is no reason whatever for 
introducing the gasoHne beyond this. Could a better 
method of heating air be devised, the oil might be 
entirely dispensed with, and the safety of the apparatus 
enhanced, as well as the economy of operation. Efforts 
have been made for fifty years to construct a hot-air 
engine that would compete with steam successfully. 
In the early fifties, as already noted, Ericsson showed the 
feasibility of substituting hot air for steam, but although 
he constructed large engines, their power was so slight 
that he was obliged to give up the idea of competing 
with steam, and to use his engines for pumping where 
very small power was required. 

The great difficulty was that it was not found prac- 
ticable to heat the air rapidly. All subsequent experi- 
menters have met with the same difficulty until some- 
what recently. It is now claimed, however, that a 
means has been found of rapidly heating the air, and it 
is even predicted that the hot-air engine will in due 
course entirely supersede the steam engine. Mr. G. 
Emil Hesse, in an article in The American Inventor , for 
April 15, 1905, describes a Svea caloric engine as 
having successfully solved the problem of rapidly 
heating air. The methods consist in breaking up the 
air into thin layers and passing it over hot plates, where 
it rapidly absorbs heat. It passes from the heater to the 
power cylinder which resembles the cylinder of a steam 
engine; thence after expanding and doing its work it 
is exhausted into the atmosphere. Large engines may 
use the same air over and over again under pressure of 
one hundred pounds per square inch, alternately heat- 

VOL. VI.— 10 [ 145 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

ing and cooling it. A six horse-power engine of this 
type is said to have a cylinder four and one-half inches 
in diameter and a stroke of four and seven-eighth inches, 
and makes four hundred and fifty revolutions per min- 
ute. The heater is twenty inches in diameter, sixteen 
inches long, and has a heating surface of sixty square 
feet. The total weight of heater and engine complete 
is four hundred pounds for a half horse-power Ericsson 
engine. 

''The Svea heater," says Mr. Hesse, ''absorbs the 
heat as perfectly as an ordinary steam boiler, and the 
heat-radiating surface of both heater and engine is not 
larger than that of a steam plant of the same power, 
thereby placing the two motors on the same basis, as far 
as the utilization of the heat in the fuel itself is concerned. 

'^The advantage which every hot-air engine has over 
the steam engine is the amount of heat saved in the va- 
porization of the water. It is now well known that one 
gas is as efficient as another for the conversion of heat 
into power. Air and steam at ioo° C. are consequently 
on the same footing and ready to be superheated. The 
amount of heat required to bring the two gases to this 
temperature is, however, very different. 

"With an initial temperature of lo® C. for both air 
and water, we find that one kilogram of steam requires 
90 + 537 = 627 thermal units, and one kilogram of air 
0.24 X 90 = 21.6 thermal units. Some heat is re- 
covered if the feed water is heated and the steam con- 
densed, but the difference is still so great as to altogether 
exclude steam as a competitor, provided air can be as 
readily handled. 

[146] 



GAS AND OIL ENGINES 

'^Having now the means to rapidly heat the air, the 
outlook for the external-combustion engine is certainly 
very promising. 

''The saving of more than half the coal now used by 
the steam engine will be of tremendous importance to 
the whole world." 

To what extent this optimistic prediction will be veri- 
fied is a problem for the future to decide. 



[147] 



VIII 

THE SMALLEST WORKERS 

IN our studies of the steam engine and gas engine we 
have been concerned with workers of inlinitesimal 
size. Yet, if we are to believe the reports of the mod- 
em investigator, the molecules of steam or of ignited 
gas are small only in a relative sense, and there is a 
legion of workers compared with which the molecules 
are really gigantic in size. These workers are the atoms, 
and the yet more minute particles of which, according 
to the most recent theories, they are themselves 
composed. 

These smallest conceivable particles, the constitu- 
ents of the atoms, are called electrons. They are a dis- 
covery of the physicists of the most recent generation. Ac- 
cording to the newest theories they account for most — 
perhaps for all — of the inter-molecular and inter-atomic 
forces; they are indeed the ultimate repositories of those 
stores of energy which are known to be contained in all 
matter. The theories are not quite as fully developed 
as could be wished, but it would appear that these 
minutest particles, the electrons, are the essential con- 
stituents of the familiar yet wonderful carrier of energy 
which we term electricity. In considering the share of 
electricity in the world's work, therefore, we shall do 
well at the outset to put ourselves in touch with recent 

[148] 



THE SMALLEST WORKERS 

views as to the nature of this most remarkable of 
workers. 

On every side in this modem world we are confronted 
by this strange agent, electricity. The word stares us in 
the face on every printed page. The thing itself is mani- 
fest in all departments of our every-day life. You go 
to your business in an electric car; ascend to your office 
in an electric elevator; utilize electric call-bells; receive 
and transmit messages about the world and beneath 
the sea by electric telegraph. Your doctor treats you 
with an electric battery. Your dentist employs elec- 
tric drills and electric furnaces. You ride in electric 
cabs; eat food cooked on electric stoves; and read 
with the aid of electric light. In a word, the manifes- 
tations of electricity are so obvious on every side that 
there can be no challenge to the phrasing which has 
christened this the Age of Electricity. 

But what, then, is this strange power that has pro- 
duced all these multifarious results? It would be 
hard to propound a scientific query that has been more 
variously answered. Ever since the first primitive man 
observed the strange effect produced by rubbing a 
piece of amber, thoughtful minds must have striven to 
explain that effect. Ever since the eighteenth-century 
scientist began his more elaborate studies of electricity, 
theories in abundance have been propounded. And yet 
we are not quite sure that even the science of to-day can 
give a correct answer as to the nature of electricity. At 
the very least, however, it is able to give some interest- 
ing suggestions which seem to show that we are in a fair 
way to solve this world-old mystery. And, curiously 

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THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

enough, the very newest explanations are not so very 
far away from some eighteenth-century theories which 
for a long time were looked at askance if not altogether 
discarded. In particular, the theory of Benjamin 
Franklin, which considered electricity as an immaterial 
fluid bearing certain curious relations to tangible matter, 
is foimd to serve singularly well as an aid to the inter- 
pretation of the very newest experiments. 

franklin's one-fluid theory 

Such being the case, we must consider this theory of 
Franklin's somewhat in detail. Perhaps we cannot do 
better than state the theory in the words of the celebrated 
physicist. Dr. Thomas Young, as given in his work on 
natural philosophy, pubHshed in 1807. By quoting 
from this old work we shall make sure that we are not 
reading any modem interpretations into the theory. 
'^It is supposed," says Young, ^^that a peculiar ethereal 
fluid pervades the pores, if not the actual substance of 
the earth and of all other material bodies, passing 
through them with more or less f aciHty , according to their 
different powers of conducting it ; that particles of this 
fluid repel each other, and are attracted by particles of 
common matter; that particles of common matter also 
repel each other; and that these attractions and repul- 
sions are equal among themselves, and vary inversely 
as to squares of the distances of the particles. The 
effects of this fluid are distinguished from those of all 
other substances by an attractive or repulsive quality, 
which it appears to communicate to different bodies, 

[ISO] 



THE SMALLEST WORKERS 

and which differs in general from other attractions and 
repulsions by its immediate diminution or cessation 
when the bodies, acting on each other, come into con- 
tact, or are touched by other bodies. ... In general, 
a body is said to be electrified when it contains, either 
as a whole or in any of its parts, more or less of the elec- 
tric fluid than is natural to it . . .In this common neu- 
tral state of all bodies, the electrical fluid, which is 
everywhere present, is so distributed that the various 
forces hold each other exactly in equilibrium and the 
separate results are destroyed, unless we choose to con- 
sider gravitation itself as arising from a comparatively 
slight inequahty between the electrical attractions and 
repulsions." 

The salient and striking feature of this theory, it will 
be observed, is that the electrical fluid, under normal 
conditions, is supposed to be incorporated everywhere 
with the substance of every material in the world. It 
will be observed that nothing whatever is postulated as 
to the nature or properties of this fluid beyond the fact 
that its particles repel each other and are attracted by 
the particles of common matter; it being also postulated 
that the particles of common matter likewise repel each 
other under normal conditions. 

At the time when Franklin propounded his theory, 
there was a rival theory before the world, which has con- 
tinued more or less popular ever since, and which is 
known as the two-fluid theory of electricity. According 
to this theory, there are two uncreated and indestruct- 
ible fluids which produce electrical effects. One fluid 
may be called positive, the other negative. The par- 

[151] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

tides of the positive fluid are mutually repellent, as also 
are the particles of the negative fluid, but, on the other 
hand, positive particles attract and are attracted by 
negative particles. We need not further elaborate the 
details of this two-fluid theory, because the best modern 
opinion considers it less satisfactory than Franklin's 
one-fluid theory. Meantime, it will be observed that 
the two theories have much in common; in particular 
they agree in the essential feature of postulating an in- 
visible something which is not matter, and which has 
strange properties of attraction and repulsion. 

These properties of attraction and repulsion con- 
stituted in the early day the only knovm manifestations 
of electricity; and the same properties continue to hold 
an important place in modem studies of the subject. 
Electricity is so named simply because amber — the 
Latin electrum — was the substance which, in the expe- 
rience of the ancients, showed most conspicuously the 
strange property of attracting small bodies after being 
rubbed. Modern methods of developing electricity 
are extremely diversified, and most of them are quite 
imsuggestive of the rubbing of amber; yet nearly all 
the varied manifestations of electricity are reducible, in 
the last analysis, to attractions and repulsions among 
the particles of matter. 

As to the alleged immaterial fluids which, according 
to the theories just mentioned, make up the real sub- 
stance of electricity, it was perfectly natural that they 
should be invented by the physicists of the elder day. 
All the conceptions of the human mind are developed 
through contact with the material world; and it is 

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THE SMALLEST WORKERS 

extremely difficult to get away, even in theory, from tan- 
gible realities. When the rubbed amber acquires the 
property of drawing the pith ball to it, we naturally 
assume that some change has taken place in the con- 
dition of the amber; and since the visible particles of 
amber appear to be unchanged — since its color, weight, 
and friabihty are unmodified — it seems as if some im- 
material quality must have been added to, or taken from 
it. And it was natural for the eighteenth-century 
physicist to think of this immaterial something as a 
fluid, because he was accustomed to think of Hght, heat, 
and magnetism as being also immaterial fluids. He did 
not know, as we now do, that what we call heat is 
merely the manifestation of varying ''modes" of motion 
among the particles of matter, and that what we call 
light is not a thing sui generis, but is merely our recog- 
nition of waves of certain length in the all-pervading 
ether. The wave theory of light had, indeed, been pro- 
pounded here and there by a philosopher, but the theory 
which regarded Hght as a corpuscular emanation had the 
support of no less an authority than Sir Isaac Newton, 
and he was a bold theorist that dared challenge it. 
When Franklin propounded his theory of electricity, 
therefore, his assumption of the immaterial fluid was 
thoroughly in accord with the physical doctrines of the 
time. 

MODERN VIEWS 

But about the beginning of the nineteenth century 
the doctrine of imponderable fluids as applied to light 
and heat was actively challenged by Young and Fresnel 

[153] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

and by Count Rumford and Humphry Davy and their 
followers, and in due course the new doctrines of light 
and heat were thoroughly established. In the light of the 
new knowledge, the theory of the electric fluid or fluids 
seemed, therefore, much less plausible. Whereas the 
earlier physicists had merely disputed as to whether we 
must assume the existence of two electrical fluids or 
of only one, it now began to be questioned whether we 
need assume the existence of any electrical fluid what- 
ever. The physicists of about the middle of the nine- 
teenth century developed the wonderful doctrine of 
conservation of energy, according to which one form of 
force may be transformed into another, but without the 
possibility of adding to, or subtracting from, the orig- 
inal sum total of energy in the universe. It became 
evident that electrical force must conform to this law. 
Finally, Clerk-Maxwell developed his wonderful elec- 
tromagnetic theory, according to which waves of light 
are of electrical origin. The work of Maxwell was 
followed up by the German Hertz, whose experiments 
produced those electromagnetic waves which, differing 
in no respect except in their length from the waves of 
light, have become familiar to everyone through their 
use in wireless telegraphy. All these experiments 
showed a close relation between electrical phenomena, 
and the phenomena of light and of radiant heat, and a 
long step seemed to be taken toward the explanation 
of the nature of electricity. 

The new studies associated electricity with the ether, 
rather than with the material substance of the electrified 
body. Manv experiments seemed to show that electric- 

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THE SMALLEST WORKERS 

ity in motion traverses chiefly the surface of the conduc- 
tor, and it came to be beheved that the essential feature 
of the ^^ current" consists of a condition of strain or 
stress in the ether surrounding a conductor, rather than 
of any change in the conductor itself. This idea, which 
is still considered valid, has the merit of doing away with 
the thought of action at a distance — the idea that was so 
repugnant to the mind of Faraday. 

So far so good. But what determines the ether strain ? 
There is surely something that is not matter and is not 
ether. What is this something? The efforts of many 
of the most distinguished experimenters have in recent 
years been directed toward the solution of that ques- 
tion ; and these efforts, thanks to the new methods and 
new discoveries, have met with a considerable measure 
of success. I must not attempt here to follow out the 
channels of discovery, but must content myself with 
stating briefly the results. We shall have occasion to 
consider some further details as to the methods in a 
later chapter. 

Briefly, then, it is now generally accepted, at least as 
a working hypothesis, that every atom of matter — be it 
oxygen, hydrogen, gold, iron, or what not — carries a 
charge of electricity, which is probably responsible for 
all the phenomena that the atom manifests. This 
charge of electricity may be positive or negative, or it 
may be neutral, by which is meant that the positive and 
negative charges may just balance. If the positive 
charge has definite carriers, these are unknown except in 
association with the atom itself; but the negative charge, 
on the other hand, is carried by minute particles to 

[155] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

which the name electron (or corpuscle) has been given, 
each of which is about one thousand times smaller than 
a hydrogen atom, and each of which carries uni- 
formly a unit charge of negative electricity. 

Electrons are combined, in what may be called 
planetary systems, in the substance of the atom; in- 
deed, it is not certain that the atom consists of any- 
thing else but such combinations of electrons, held to- 
gether by the inscrutable force of positive electricity. 
Some, at least, of the electrons within the atom are 
violently active — perhaps whirling in planetary orbits, — 
and from time to time one or more electrons may escape 
from the atomic system. In thus escaping an electron 
takes away its charge of negative electricity, and the 
previously neutral atom becomes positively electrified. 
Meanwhile the free electron may hurtle about with its 
charge of negative electricity, or may combine with 
some neutral atom and thus give to that neutral atom a 
negative charge. Under certain conditions myriads of 
these electrons, escaped thus from their atomic systems, 
may exist in the free state. For example, the so-called 
beta (^) rays of radium and its allies consist of such 
electrons, which are being hurtled off into space with 
approximately the speed of light. The cathode rays, 
of which we have heard so much in recent years, also 
consist of free electrons. 

But, for that matter, all currents of electricity what- 
ever, according to this newest theory, consist simply of 
aggregations of free electrons. According to theory, if 
the electrons are in uniform motion they produce the 
phenomena of constant currents of electricity; if they 

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THE SMALLEST WORKERS 

move non-uniformly they produce electromagnetic 
phenomena (for example, the waves used in wireless 
telegraphy); if they move with periodic motion they 
produce the waves of light. Meanwhile stationary ag- 
gregations of electrons produce the so-called electro- 
static phenomena. All the various ether waves are thus 
believed to be produced by changes in the motions of 
the electrons. A very sudden stoppage, such as is pro- 
duced when the cathode ray meets an impassable 
barrier, produces the X-ray. 

With these explanations in mind, it will be obvious 
how closely this newest interpretation of electricity 
corresponds in its general features with the old one- 
fluid theory of Franklin. The efforts of the present- 
day physicist have resulted essentially in an analysis of 
Franklin's fluid, which gives to this fluid an atomic struc- 
ture. The new theory takes a step beyond the old in 
suggesting the idea that the same particles which make 
up the electric fluid enter also into the composition — 
perhaps are the sole physical constituents — of every 
material substance as well. But while the new theory 
thus extends the bounds of our vision, we must not claim 
that it fully solves the mystery. We can visualize the 
ultimate constituent of electricity as an electron one 
thousand times smaller than the hydrogen atom, which 
has mass and inertia, and which possesses powers of 
attraction and repulsion. But as to the actual nature 
of this ultimate particle we are still in the dark. There 
are, however, some interesting theories as to its char- 
acter, which should claim at least incidental attention. 

We have all along spoken of the electron as an ex- 

[157] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

ceedingly minute particle, stating indeed, that in actual 
size it is believed to be about one thousand times smaller 
than the hydrogen atom, which hitherto had been con- 
sidered the smallest thing known to science. But we 
have now to offer a seemingly paradoxical modification of 
this statement. It is true that in mass or weight the 
electron is a thousand times smaller than the hydrogen 
atom, yet at the same time it may be conceived that 
the limits of space which the electron occupies are 
indefinitely large. In a word, it is conceived (by 
Professor J. J. Thomson, who is the chief path-breaker 
in this field) that the electron is in reality a sort of 
infinitesimal magnet, having two poles joined by lines or 
tubes of magnetic force (the so-called Faraday tube), 
which Hnes or tubes are of indefinite number and ex- 
tent ; precisely as, on a large scale, our terrestrial globe 
is such a magnet supplied with such an indefinite 
magnetic field. That the mass of the electron is so 
infinitesimally small is explained on the assumption 
that this mass is due to a certain amount of universal 
ether which is bound up with the tubes where they are 
thickest; close to the point in space from which they 
radiate, which point in space constitutes the focus of 
the tangible electron. 

It will require some close thinking on the part of the 
reader to gain a clear mental picture of this conception 
of the electron ; but the result is worth the effort. 
When you can clearly conceive all matter as composed 
of electrons, each one of which cobwebs space with its 
system of magnetic tubes, you will at least have a 
tangible picture in mind of a possible explanation of 

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THE SMALLEST WORKERS 

the forces of cohesion and gravitation — in fact, of all 
the observed cases of seeming action at a distance. 
If at first blush the conception of space as filled with an 
interminable meshwork of lines of force seems to involve 
us in a hopeless mental tangle, it should be recalled 
that the existence of an infinity of such magnetic lines 
joining the poles of the earth may be demonstrated at 
any time by the observation of a compass, yet that these 
do not in any v^^ay interfere with the play of other 
famihar forces. There is nothing unthinkable, then, 
in the supposition that there are m)n*iads of minor 
magnetic centres exerting lesser degrees of force 
throughout the same space. 

All that can be suggested as to the actual nature of the 
Faraday tubes is that they perhaps represent a condi- 
tion of the ether. This, obviously, is heaping hypothesis 
upon hypothesis. Yet it should be understood that the 
hypothesis of the magnetic electron as the basis of 
matter, has received an amount of experimental sup- 
port that has raised it at least to the level of a working 
theory. Should that theory be demonstrated to be 
true, we shall apparently be forced to conclude not 
merely that electricity is present ever)rwhere in nature, 
but that, in the last analysis, there is absolutely no 
tangible thing other than electricity in all the universe. 

HOW ELECTRICITY IS DEVELOPED 

Turning from this very startHng theoretical con- 
clusion to the practicalities, let us inquire how electricity 
— which apparently exists, as it were, in embryo every- 

[159] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

where — can be made manifest. In so doing we shall 
discover that there are varying types of electricity, yet 
that these have a singular uniformity as to their essen- 
tial properties. As usually divided— and the classifica- 
tion answers particularly well from the standpoint of the 
worker — electricity is spoken of as either statical or 
dynamical. The words themselves are suggestive of 
the essential difference between the two types. Statical 
electricity produces very striking manifestations. We 
have already spoken of it as theoretically due to the 
conditions of the electrons at rest. It must be under- 
stood, however, that the statical electricity will, if given 
opportunity, seek to escape from any given location to 
another location, under certain conditions, somewhat 
as water which is stored up in a reservoir will, when 
opportunity offers, flow down to a lower level. The pent- 
up static electricity has, Hke the water in the reservoir^ 
a store of potential energy. The physicist speaks of it as 
having high tension. In passing to a condition of lower 
tension, the statical electricity may give up a large por- 
tion of its energy. 

If, for example, on a winter day in a cold climate, you 
walk briskly along a wool carpet, the friction of your 
feet with the carpet generates a store of statical electric- 
ity, which immediately passes over the entire surface of 
your body. If now you touch another person or a 
metal conductor, such as a steam radiator or a gas pipe, 
a brilliant spark jumps from your finger, and you ex- 
perience what is spoken of as an electrical shock. 
If the day is very cold, and the air consequently very 
dry, and if you will take pains to rub your feet vigor- 

[i6o] 



THE SMALLEST WORKERS 

ously or slide along the carpet, you may light a gas jet 
with the spark which will spring from your finger to 
the tip of the jet, provided the latter is of metal or other 
conducting substance; and even if you attempt to 
avoid the friction between your feet and the carpet as 
much as possible, you may be constantly annoyed by 
receiving a shock whenever you touch any conductor, 
since, in spite of your efforts, the necessary amount of 
friction sufi&ced to generate a store of statical electricity. 

An illustration of the development of this same form 
of electricity, on a large scale, is supplied by the fa- 
mihar statical machine, which consists of a large circle of 
glass, so adjusted that it may be revolved rapidly against 
a suitable friction producer. With such a machine a 
powerful statical current is produced, capable of gen- 
erating a spark that may be many inches or even several 
feet in length, — a veritable flash of lightning. It is 
with such a supply of electricity conducted through a 
vacuum tube that the cathode ray and the Roentgen 
ray are produced. 

Such effects as this suggest considerable capacity for 
doing work. Yet in reaHty, notwithstanding the very 
sporadical character of the result, the quantity of 
electricity involved in such a statical current may be 
very slight indeed. Even a lightning flash is held to 
represent a comparatively small amount of electricity. 
Faraday calculated that the amount of electricity that 
could be generated from a single drop of water, through 
chemical manipulation, would suffice to supply the 
lightning for a fair-sized thunder-storm. Nevertheless 
the destructive work that may be done by a flash of 

VOL. VI. — IT [ i^i ] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

lightning may be considerable, as everyone is aware. 
But, on the other hand, while the visible effect of a stroke 
of lightning on a tree trunk, for example, makes it 
seem a powerful agency, yet the actual capacity to do 
work — the power to move considerable masses of mat- 
ter — is extremely limited. The effect on a tree trunk, 
it will be recalled, usually consists of nothing more than 
the stripping off of a channel of bark. In other words, 
the working energy contained in a seemingly powerful 
supply of statical electricity commonly plays but an 
insignificant part. 

The working agent, and therefore the form of elec- 
tricity which concerns us in the present connection, is 
the dynamical current. This may be generated in 
various ways, but in practice these are chiefly reducible 
to two. One of these depends upon chemical action, 
the other upon the inter-relations of mechanical mo- 
tion and magnetic lines of force. A common illustra- 
tion of the former is supplied by the familiar voltaic 
or galvanic battery. The electromagnetic form has been 
rendered even more familiar in recent times by the 
dynamo. This newest and most powerful of workers 
will claim our attention in detail in the succeeding 
chapter. Our present consideration will be directed 
to the older method of generating the electric current 
as represented by the voltaic cell. 

THE WORK OF THE DYNAMICAL CURRENT 

Let us draw our illustration from a familiar source. 
Even should your household otherwise lack electrical 

[162] 



THE SMALLEST WORKERS 

appliances, you are sure to have an electric call-bell. 
The generator of the electric current, which is stored 
away in some out-of-the-way comer, is probably a 
small so-called '^ dry-cell" which you could readily 
carry around in your pocket; or it may consist of a 
receptacle holding a pint or two of liquid in which some 
metal plates are immersed. Such an apparatus seems 
scarcely more than a toy when we contrast it with the 
gigantic dynamos of the power-house; yet, within the 
limits of its capacities, one is as surely a generator of 
electricity as the other. If we are to accept the latest 
theory, the electrical current which flows from this tiny 
cell is precisely the same in kind as that which 
flows from the five- thousand-horse-power dynamo. 
The difference is only one of quantity. 

To understand the operation of this common house- 
hold appliance we must bear in mind two or three 
familiar experimental facts in reference to the action 
of the voltaic cell. Briefly, such a cell consists of two 
plates of metal — for example, one of copper and the 
other of zinc — with a connecting medium, which is 
usually a liquid, but which may be a piece of moistened 
cloth or blotting-paper. So long as the two plates of 
metal are not otherwise connected there is no electricity 
in evidence, but when the two are joined by any metal 
conductor, as, for example, a piece of wire — thus, in 
common parlance, '^completing the circuit" — a current 
of electricity flows about this circuit, passing from the 
first metal plate to the second, through the liquid and 
back from the second plate to the first through the piece 
of wire. The wire may be of any length. In the case of 

[163] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

your call-bell, for example, the wire circuit extends to 
your door, and is there broken, shutting off the current. 

When you press the button you connect the broken 
ends of the wire, thus closing the circuit, as the saying is, 
and the re-estabHshed current, acting through a little 
electromagnet, rings the bell. In another case, the wire 
may be hundreds of miles in length, to serve the purposes 
of the telegrapher, who transmits his message by open- 
ing and closing the circuit, precisely as you operate your 
door-bell. For long-distance telegraphy, of course, 
large cells are required, and numbers of them are linked 
together to give a cumulative effect, making a strong 
current; but there is no new principle involved. 

The simplest study of this interesting mechanism 
makes it clear that the cell is the apparatus primarily 
involved in generating the electric current; yet it is 
equally obvious that the connecting wire plays an im- 
portant part, since, as we have seen, when the wire is 
broken there is no current in evidence. Now, accord- 
ing to the electron theory, as previously outlined, the 
electric current consists of an actual flow along the wire 
of carriers of electricity which are unable to make their 
way except where a course is provided for them by 
what is called a conductor. Dry air, for example, is, un- 
der ordinary circumstances, quite impervious to them. 
This means, then, that the electrons flow freely along 
the wire when it is continuous, but that they are power- 
less to proceed when the wire is cut. When you push 
the button of your call-bell, therefore, you are virtually 
closing the switch which enables the electrons to proceed 
on their interrupted journey. 

[164] 



THE SMALLEST WORKERS 

THEORIES OF ELECTRICAL ACTION 

But all this, of course, leaves quite untouched the 
question of the origin of the electrons themselves. 
That these go hurtling from one plate or pole of the bat- 
tery to the other, along the wire, we can understand at 
least as a working theory; that, furthermore, the elec- 
trons have their origin either in the metal plates or in 
the liquid that connects them, seems equally obvious; 
but how shall we account for their development? It 
is here that the chemist with his atomic theory of matter 
comes to our aid. He assures us that all matter consists 
in the last analysis of excessively minute particles, 
and that these particles are perpetually in motion. 
They imite with one another to form so-called molecules, 
but they are perpetually breaking away from such 
unions, even though they re-establish them again. Such 
activities of the atoms take place even in solids, but they 
are greatly enhanced when any substance passes from 
the solid into the liquid state. 

When, for example, a lump of salt is dissolved in 
water, the atoms of sodium and of chlorine which 
joined together make up the molecules of salt are held 
in much looser bondage than they were while the salt 
was in a dry or crystalline form. Could we magnify 
the infinitesimal particles sufficiently to make them 
visible we should probably see large numbers of the 
molecules being dissociated, the Hberated atoms mov- 
ing about freely for an instant and then reuniting with 
other atoms. Thus at any given instant our solution of 
salt would contain numerous free atoms of sodium and 

[165] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

of chlorine, although we are justified in thinking of this 
substance as a whole as composed of sodium-chlorine 
molecules. It is only by thus visualizing the activity of 
the atoms in a solution that we are able to provide even 
a thinkable hypothesis as to the development of elec- 
tricity in the voltaic cell. 

What puts us on the track of the explanation we are 
seeking is the fact that the diverse atoms are known 
to have different electrical properties. In our voltaic 
cell, for example, sodium atoms would collect at one 
pole and chlorine atoms at the other. Humphry Davy 
discovered this fact in the early days of electro-chemistry, 
just about a century ago. He spoke of the sodium 
atom as electro-positive, and of the chlorine atom as elec- 
tro-negative, and he attempted to explain all chemical 
affinity as merely due to the mutual attraction between 
positively and negatively electrified atoms. The modem 
theorist goes one step farther, and explains the negative 
properties of the chlorine atom by assuming the pres- 
ence of one negative electron or electricity in excess of 
the neutralizing charge. The assumption is, that the 
sodium atom has lost this negative electron and thus has 
become positively electrified. The chlorine atom, har- 
boring the fugitive electron, becomes negatively elec- 
trified. Hence the two atoms are attracted toward op- 
posite poles of the cell. 

This disunion of atoms, be it understood, must be 
supposed to take place in the case of any solution of 
common salt, whether it rests in an ordinary cup or 
forms a part of the ocean. Here we have, then, material 
for the generation of the electrical cuiTent, if some 

[i66] 



THE SMALLEST WORKERS 

means could be found to induce the chlorine atom to 
give up the surplus electron which from time to time it 
carries. And this means is provided when two pieces of 
metal of different kinds, united with a metal conductor, 
are immersed in the liquid. Then it comes to pass that 
the electrons associated with the chlorine atoms that 
chance to lie in contact with one of these plates of metal, 
find in this metal an avenue of escape. They rush off 
eagerly along the metal and the connecting wire, and in 
so doing establish a current which acts — if we may 
venture a graphic analogy from an allied field of physics 
— as a sort of suction, attracting other chlorine atoms 
from the body of the Hquid against the metal plate that 
they also may discharge their electrons. In other words, 
the electrical current passes through the liquid as well 
as through the outside wire, thus completing the 
circuit. 

According to this theory, then, the electrical energy 
in evidence in the current from the voltaic cell, is drawn 
from a store of potential energy in the at.om.s of matter 
composing the Hquid in the cell. In practice, as is well 
known, the liquid used is one that affects one of the 
metal poles more actively than the other, insuring 
vigorous chemical activity. But the principle of atomic 
and electrical dissociation just outlined is the one in- 
volved, according to theory, in every voltaic cell, what- 
ever the particular combination of metals and liquids 
of which it is composed. It should be added, however, 
that while we are thus supplied with a thinkable 
explanation of the origin of this manifestation of 
electrical energy, no explanation is forthcoming, here 

[167] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

any more than in the case of the dynamo, as to why the 
electrons rush off in a particular direction and thus 
estabhsh an electrical current. Perhaps we should re- 
call that the very existence of this current has at times 
been doubted. Quite recently, indeed, it has been held 
that the seeming current consists merely of a condi- 
tion of strain or displacement of the ether. But we are 
here chiefly concerned with the electron theory, ac- 
cording to which, as we have all along noted, the seem- 
ing current is an actual current; the ether strain, if 
such exists, being due to the passage of the electrons. 

PRACTICAL USES OF ELECTRICITY 

Various effects of the current of electrons have been 
hinted at above. Considered in detail, the possible ways 
in which these currents may be utilized are multifarious. 
Yet, they may be all roughly classified into three 
divisions as follows : 

First, cases in which the current of electricity is used 
to transmit energy from one place to another, and re- 
produce it in the form of molar motion. The dynamo, 
in its endless applications, illustrates one phase of such 
transportation of energy; and the call-bell, the telegraph, 
and the telephone represent another phase. In one 
case a relatively large quantity of electricity is necessary, 
in the other case a small quantity; but the principle in- 
volved — that of electric and magnetic induction — is the 
same in each. 

The second method is that in which the current, 
generated by either a dynamo or a battery of voltaic 

[i68] 



THE SMALLEST WORKERS 

cells, is made to encounter a relatively resistant medium 
in the course of its flow along the conducting circuit. 
Such resistance leads to the production of active vi- 
brations among the particles of the resisting medium, 
producing the phenomena of heat and, if the activity 
is sufficient, the phenomena of light also. It will thus 
appear that in this class of cases, as in the other, there 
is an actual re-transformation of electrical energy into 
the energy of motion, only in this case the motion is 
that of molecules and not of larger bodies. The prin- 
ciple is utilized in the electrical heater, with which our 
electric street-cars are commonly provided, and which is 
making its way in the household for purposes of general 
heating and of cooking. It is utilized also in various 
factories, where the very high degree of heat attainable 
with the electrical furnace is employed to produce chem- 
ical dissociation and facilitate chemical combinations. 
By this means, for example, a compound of carbon and 
silicon, which is said to be the hardest known substance, 
except the diamond, is produced in commercial quanti- 
ties. A famiHar household illustration of the use of 
this principle is furnished by the electric Hght. The car- 
bon filament in the electric bulb furnishes such resist- 
ance to the electric current that its particles are set vio- 
lently aquiver. Under ordinary conditions the oxygen 
of the air would immediately unite with the carbon 
particles, volatiHzing them, and thus instantly destroy- 
ing the filament ; but the vacuum bulb excludes the air, 
and thus gives relative permanency to the fragile thread. 
The third class of cases in which the electric current 
is commercially utilized is that in which the transforma- 

[169] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

tions it effects are produced in solutions comparable to 
those of the voltaic cell, the principles involved being those 
pointed out in the earlier part of the present chapter. 
By this means a metal may be deposited in a pure state 
upon the surface of another metal made to act as a pole 
to the battery; as, for example, when forks, spoons, and 
other utensils of cheap metals are placed in a solution 
of a silver compound, and thus electroplated with silver. 
To produce the powerful effects necessary in the various 
commercial appHcations of this principle, the poles of the 
voltaic cell — which cell may become in practice a large 
tank — are connected with the current supplied by a 
dynamo. Various chemical plants at Niagara utilize 
portions of the currents from the great generators there 
in this way. Another familiar illustration of the prin- 
ciple is furnished by the copper electroplates from 
which most modem books are printed. 

It appears, then, that all the multifarious uses of 
electricity in modem life are reducible to a few simple 
principles of action, just as electricity itself is reduced, 
according to the analysis of the modem physicist, to the 
activities of the elementary electron. There is nothing 
anomalous in this, however, for in the last analysis the 
mechanical principles involved in doing all the world's 
work are few and relatively simple, however ingenious 
and relatively complex may be the appliances through 
which these principles are made available. 



[170] 



IX 

MAN'S NEWEST CO-LABORER: THE DYNAMO 

AS you stand waiting for your train at elevated or 
subway station you must have noticed the third 
rail. To outward appearance it is not different 
from the other rails. It seems a mere inert piece of steel. 
Yet you are well aware that a strange power abides 
there unseen — a power that pulls the train, and that 
lurks in hiding to strike a death-blow to any chance un- 
fortunate whose foot or hand comes in contact with 
the rail. As the heavy train dashes up, dragged by this 
unseen power, probably you, in common with the rest of 
the world, have been led to remark, "Is it not marvel- 
ous?" 

Marvelous it surely seems. Yet the cause of our as- 
tonishment is to be sought in the relative newness of the 
phenomena rather than in the nature of the phenomena 
themselves. At first glance it may seem that the in- 
tangible character of the electrical power gives it a 
unique claim on our wonderment. But a moment's 
reflection dispels this illusion. After all, electricity 
is no more intangible than heat. Neither the one nor the 
other can be seen or heard, but each aHke may be felt. 
Yet we observe without astonishment a locomotive 
propelled by the power of heat — simply because the 
locomotive has become an old story. Again, electricity 

[171] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

is far less intangible than gravitation. Not merely may 
electricity be felt, but it may be generated through trans- 
formation of other forms of energy; it may be stored 
away and measured ; may be conducted at will through 
tortuous channels, or obstructed in its flight by the in- 
tervention of non-conductors. But gravitation submits 
to no such restrictions. It eludes all of our senses, and it 
absolutely disregards all barriers. To its catholic taste 
all substances are alike. It holds in bondage every 
particle of matter in the universe, and can enforce its 
influence over every kind of atom with an impartiality 
that is as astounding as it is inexorable. Moreover, 
this weird force, gravitation, has thus far evaded all 
man's efforts to classify or label it. No man has the 
slightest inkling as to what gravitation really is. If, 
as you glance at these lines, you should chance to release 
your hold and allow the volume to drop to the floor, you 
will have performed a miracle which no scientist in the 
world can even vaguely explain. 

As regards our electric train, then, the fact that it 
stands there firmly, held fast to the rails by gravitation, 
is in reality as great and as inexplicable a marvel as the 
fact that the electric current gives it propulsion. Not 
only so, but the fact that the train goes forward of its 
own inertia, as we say, for a time after the current is 
shut off, presents to us yet another inexplicable marvel. 
It is a fundamental property of matter, we say, when 
once in motion to continue in motion until stopped by 
some counter-force ; but that phrasing, expressive though 
it be of a fact upon which so many physical phenomena 
depend, is in no proper sense of the word an explanation. 

[172] 



i 



MAN'S CO-LABORER: THE DYNAMO 

Once for all, then, there is nothing unique, nothing 
pretematurally marvelous, about the phenomena of 
electricity. And indeed, it is interesting to note how 
quickly we become accustomed to these phenomena, 
and how little wonder they excite so soon as they cease 
to be novel. Even imaginative people have long since 
ceased to give thought to the trolley car; and within a 
week of the opening of New York's subway the average 
man came to regard it as much as a matter of course as 
if he had been accustomed to it from boyhood. 

And yet, in another sense of the word, the electric 
motor is a wonderful contrivance. As an example of 
what man's ingenuity can accomplish toward trans- 
forming the powers of nature and adapting them to his 
own use, it is fully entitled to be called a marvel. More- 
over, in the last analysis, we are as helpless to explain the 
nature of electricity as we are to explain the nature 
of gravitation. It is only the proximal phenomena of 
the electric current that can be explained. These 
phenomena, however, are full of interest. Let us 
examine them somewhat in detail, allowing them to lead 
us back from electric train to power-house and dynamo, 
and from dynamo as far toward the mystery of electric 
energy as present-day science can guide us. 

THE MECHANISM OF THE DYNAMO 

If we could look into the interior of a mechanism in 
connection with the trucks beneath the car, we should 
find an apparatus consisting essentially of coils of wire 
adjusted compactly about an axis, and closely fitted 

[173] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

between the poles of a powerful electromagnet. These 
coils of wire constitute what is called an armature. When 
the current is switched on it passes through this arma- 
ture, as well as through the electromagnet, and the mutual 
attractions and repulsions between the magnetic poles 
and the electric current in the coils of wire, cause the 
armature to revolve with such tremendous energy as 
to move the train — the motion of its axis being trans- 
mitted to the axle of the car-wheels by a simple gearing. 

All this is simple enough if we regard only the how 
and not the why of the phenomena. Ignoring the why 
for the moment, let us seek the origin of the current 
which, by being conducted through the armature, 
has produced the striking effect we have just witnessed. 
This current reaches the car through an overhead or 
underground wire. All that is essential is that some con- 
ducting medium, such as an iron rail, or a copper wire, 
shall form an unbroken connection between the motor 
apparatus and the central dynamo where the power is 
generated — the return circuit being made either by 
another wire or by the ordinary rails. 

The central dynamo in question will be found, if we 
visit the power-house, to be a ponderous affair, sugges- 
tive to the untechnical mind of impenetrable mysteries. 
Yet in reality it is a device essentially the same in con- 
struction as the motor which drives the train. That 
is to say, its unit of construction consists of a wire- 
wound armature revolving on an axis and fitted between 
the poles of an electromagnet. Here, however, the 
sequence of phenomena is reversed, for the armature, 
instead of receiving a current of electricity, is made to 

[174] 




Lower figure copyrighted by N. Y. Edison Co. 

AN ELECTRIC TRAIN AND THE DYNAMO THAT PROPELS IT. 

The lower figure gives an interior view of a power house of the Manhattan 
Elevated Railway Company. The upper figure shows one of the electric engines 
operating on the New York Central Lines just outside of New York. The power 
is conveyed to the engine by a third rail clearly shown in the picture. 



MAN'S CO-LABORER: THE DYNAMO 

revolve by a belt adjusted to its axis and driven by a 
steam engine. The wire coils of the armature thus made 
to revolve cut across the so-called lines of magnetic 
force which connect the two poles of the magnet, and 
in so doing generate a current of induced electricity, 
which flows away to reach in due course the third rail 
or the trolley- wire, and ultimately to propel the motor. 
It is hardly necessary to state that in actual practice 
this generating dynamo is a complex structure. The 
armature is a complex series of coils of wire; the elec- 
tromagnets surrounding the armature are several or 
many; and there is an elaborate system of so-called 
commutators through which the currents of electricity — 
which would otherwise oscillate as the revolving coil 
cuts the lines of magnetic force in opposite directions — 
are made to flow in one direction. But details aside, 
the foundation facts upon which everything depends 
are (i) that a coil of wire when forced to move so that 
it cuts across the lines of force in any magnetic field 
develops a so-called induced current of electricity; and 
(2) that such an induced current possesses power of 
magnetic attraction and repulsion. These facts were 
discovered more than sixty years ago, and carefully 
studied by Michael Faraday, Joseph Henry, and others. 
Faraday foimd that such an induced current could be 
produced not merely with the aid of an iron magnet, 
but even by causing a wire to cut the lines of force that 
everywhere connect the north and south poles of the 
earth, — the earth being indeed, as William Gilbert long 
ago demonstrated, veritably a gigantic magnet. More- 
over, these relations are reciprocal; so that if a wire 

[175] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

through which a current of electricity is passing is 
placed across a magnetic field, the wire is impelled to 
move in a plane at right angles to the direction of the 
lines of force. It is forcibly thrust aside. This side- 
thrust acting on coils of wire is what produces the 
revolution of the armature of the electric motor. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE DYNAMO 

The very first studies that had to do with the mutual 
relations of electricity and magnetism were made by 
Hans Christian Oersted, the Dane, as early as 1815. 
He discovered that a magnetic needle is influenced by 
the passage near it of a current of electricity, demon- 
strating, therefore, that the electric current in some 
way invades the medium surrounding any conductor 
along which it is passing. Oersted's experiments were 
repeated, and some new phenomena observed by the 
Frenchman Andre Marie Ampere and Dominique Fran- 
cois Arago. Arago constructed an interesting device, in 
which a metal disk was made to revolve in the presence of 
a current of electricity; but neither he nor anyone else at 
the time was able to explain the phenomenon. 

In 1824 an advance was made through the construc- 
tion of the first electric magnet by Sturgeon. Hitherto 
it had not been known that a magnet could be made 
artificially, except by contact with a previously existing 
magnet. Sturgeon showed that any core of iron may 
be rendered magnetic if wound with a conducting wire, 
through which a current of electricity is passed. The 
experiments thus inaugurated were followed up in 

[176] 



MAN'S CO-LABORER: THE DYNAMO 

America by Joseph Henry of Albany who made enor- 
mous electromagnets, capable of sustaining great 
weights. One of his magnets, operated by a single cell, 
was able to lift six hundred and fifty pounds of metal. 

It was this apparatus which was subsequently to 
make possible the utiHzation of electricity as a working 
force, but as yet no one suspected its possibilities in 
this direction. 

It remained for Michael Faraday, in 1831, to make 
the final experiment which laid the secure foundation 
for the new science of electrodynamics. Faraday con- 
structed a tiny apparatus, consisting of a magnet 
between the poles of which a metal disk was placed in 
such a way that it could revolve on an axis, the disk 
being connected with a wire conveying an electric 
current. 

The details as to this most ingenious mechanism 
need not be given here. Suffice it that Faraday demon- 
strated the interrelations of magnetism and electricity 
and the possibility of causing a metal disk to revolve 
through this mutual interaction. In so doing he con- 
structed the first dynamo-electric machine. In his hands 
it was a mere laboratory toy, but the principles involved 
were fully elaborated by the original experimenter, and 
stated in precise language which modem investigators 
have not been able to improve upon. 

Several decades elapsed after Faraday^ s initial ex- 
periment before the phenomena of magneto-electricity 
were proved to have any considerable commercial 
significance. A vast amount of ingenuity was required 
to devise a mechanism which could advantageously util- 
voL. VI.— 12 [ lyy ] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

ize the principle in question for commercial purposes. 
Indeed the early experimenters did not at once get upon 
the right track, as their efforts were influenced disad- 
vantageously by an attempt to follow the principle of 
the steam engine. Some interesting mechanisms were 
devised whereby the motion of an armature in being 
drawTi toward an electromagnet could be translated 
into rotary motion through the use of crank-shafts and 
even of beams, precisely comparable to those employed 
in the steam engine. Such devices worked with a com- 
paratively low degree of efficiency and were totally aban- 
doned so soon as the idea of getting rotary motion di- 
rectly from the magnet or armature was made feasible. 
The names of Saxton, Clarke, Woolrich, Wheatstone, 
and Werner Siemens are intimately connected with the 
early efforts at utilization of magneto-electric power. 
The shuttle-wound armature of Siemens, invented in 
1854, marked an important progressive step. 

PERFECTING THE DYNAMO 

The first separately excited dynamos were constructed 
by Dr. Henry Wilde, F.R.S., between 1863 and 1865, 
and this invention paved the way for rapid progress. 
In 1866-7 Varley, Siemens, Wheatstone, and Ladd con- 
structed machines with several iron electromagnets, 
self-excited, which were described as dynamo-electric 
machines, a term afterward contracted to d3mamos. In 
1867 Dr. Wilde improved the armature by introducing 
several coils arranged around a cyHnder; the current 
from a few of the coils was rectified and used 

[178] 





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J 




H*^ m 


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^BBbI^^h<^^'^'9v3^^^^^^ie 


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Hq^^k^-*^ - ^^^^^^^^^^r 




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fer 


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9 



WILDE'S SEPARATELY EXCITED DYNAMO 



Dr. Wilde invented and patented (1863-5) th^ ^^st separately excited dynamo, 
with which he demonstrated that the feeble current from a small magneto-electric 
machine would, by the expenditure of mechanical power, produce currents of great 
strength from a large dynamo. 



MAN'S CO-LABORER: THE DYNAMO 

to excite the field magnet, while the main current as 
given off by the rest of the coils was taken off by ring- 
contacts, the machine being a self-exciting, alternating- 
current dynamo. 

The Italian, Picnotti, in 1864 invented a ring arma- 
ture which, although provided with teeth was wound 
with coils in such a way as to obtain a very uniform 
current; but the practical introduction of the con- 
tinuous-current machines dates from 1870, when 
Gramme re-invented the ring and gave it the form 
which is still in vogue. Von Alteneck in 1873 con- 
verted the Siemens shuttle armature along the same 
lines and so introduced the drum arrangement which 
has since been very extensively adopted. 

Thus through the efforts of a great number of workers 
the idea of utilizing electromagnetic energy for the 
purposes of the practical worker came to be a reality. 
Numberless machines have been made differing only as 
to details that need not detain us here. Everyone is 
famihar with sundry applications of the dynamo to the 
purposes of to-day's applied science. It must be under- 
stood, of course, that the amount of electricity generated 
in any dynamo is precisely measurable, and that by 
no possibility could the energy thus developed exceed 
the energy required to move the coils of wire. Were 
it otherwise the great law of the conservation of energy 
would be overthrown. In actual practice, of course, 
there is loss of energy in the transaction. The current 
of electricity that flows from the very best dynamo repre- 
sents considerably less working power than is expended 
by the steam engine in forcibly revolving the armature. 

[179] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

In the early days of experiments the loss was so great 
as to be commercially prohibitive. With the perfected 
modem dynamo the loss is not greater than fifteen per 
cent; but even this, it will be noted, makes electricity 
a relatively expensive power as compared with steam, — 
except, indeed, where some natural power, like the Falls 
of Niagara, can be utilized to drive the armature. 

A MYSTERIOUS MECHANISM 

The efficiency of the modern dynamo is due largely 
to the fact that when the poles of the magnet are made 
to face each other, the lines of magnetic force passing 
between these poles are concentrated into a narrow 
compass. With the ordinary bar magnet, as everyone 
is aware, these lines of force circle out in everj^ direction 
from the poles in an almost infinite number of loops, all 
converging at the poles, and becoming relatively sepa- 
rated at the equator in a manner which may be graph- 
ically illustrated by the lines of longitude drawn on an 
ordinary globe. 

It is obvious that with a magnet of such construction 
only a small proportion of the lines of magnetic force 
could be utilized in generating electricity. But, as al- 
ready mentioned, when the magnet is so curved that its 
poles face each other, the lines of force, instead of widely 
diverging, pass from pole to pole almost in a direct 
stream. The strength of this magnetic stream may be 
increased almost indefinitely by winding the iron core 
of the magnet with the coil of wire through which the 
electric current is passed, thus constituting the electro- 

[i8o] 




THE EVOLUTION OF THE DYNAMO. 

Fig. I. — A small example of the original commercial form of the drum armature ma- 
chine, patented in 1873 by Dr. Werner Siemens and F. Von Hefner Alteneck. The armature 
is a development of the Siemens shuttle form of 1856, and gives a nearly continuous current. 
Fig. 2. — Arr early experimental dynamo. Fig. 3. — Ferranti's original dynamo, patented in 
1882-1883. The field magnets are stationary and consist of two sets of electro-magnets each 
with 16 projecting pull pieces, between which the armature revolves. Fig. 4. — The gigantic 
rotary converters of the Manhattan Elevated Railway. 



MAN'S CO-LABORER: THE DYNAMO 

magnet which has replaced the old permanent magnet 
in all modem commercial dynamos. 

An electromagnet may be sufficiently powerful to lift 
tons of iron. The force it exerts, therefore, is very 
tangible in its results. Yet it seems mysterious, because 
so many substances are unaffected by it. You may 
place your head, for example, between the poles of the 
most powerful magnet without experiencing any sen- 
sation or being in any obvious way affected. You may 
wave your hand across the Hnes of force as freely as you 
may wave it anywhere else in space. Apparently 
nothing is there. But were you to attempt to pass a 
dumb-bell or a bar of iron across the same space, the 
unseen magnetic force would wTench it from your grasp 
with a power so irresistible as to be awe-inspiring. 

Similarly, the armature, when its coils of wire are ad- 
justed between the poles of the magnet, is held in a vise- 
Hke grip by the invisible but potent lines of magnetic 
force which tend to make it revolve. It requires a 
tremendous expenditure of energy — supplied by the 
steam-engine or by water power — to enable the coiled 
wires of the generating armature to stem the current of 
magnetic force, which is virtually what is done when the 
armature revolves in such a way as to produce electrical 
energy. Part of the mechanical energy thus expended is 
transformed into heat and dissipated into space; but 
the main portion is carried off, as we have seen, through 
the coiled wires of the armature in the form of what we 
term the current of electricity, to be re-transformed in 
due course into the mechanical energy that moves the 
car. 

[i8i] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

It appears, then, that the phenomena of the electric 
dynamo depend upon the curious relations that exist 
between magnetism and electricity. Granted the es- 
sential facts of magneto-electric induction, all the phe- 
nomena of the dynamo are explicable. But how ex- 
plain these facts themselves ? Why is an electric current 
generated in a coil of wire moving in a magnetic field ? 
And why is a wire carrying a current of electricity, when 
placed across a magnetic field, impelled to move at 
right angles to the lines of magnetic force ? No thought- 
ful person can consider the subject without asking these 
questions. But as yet no definitive answer is forthcom- 
ing. Some suggestive half-explanations, based on an 
assumed condition of torsion or strain in the ether, have 
been attempted, but they can hardly be called more 
than scientific guesses. 

Meanwhile, it may be understood that the mutual 
relations of the magnetic and electrical forces just 
referred to are not at all dependent upon the manner 
in which the electric current is generated. The magneto- 
electric motor may be operated as well with a chemical 
battery as with such a mechanical generating dynamo 
as has just been described. The storage-batteries 
which have been employed in some street railways and 
those which propel the electric cabs about our city 
streets furnish cases in point. The only reason these 
are not more generally employed is that the storage 
battery has not yet been perfected so that it can produce 
a large supply of electricity in proportion to its weight, 
and produce it economically. 

[182] 



H 



X 

NIAGARA IN HARNESS 

«^y "f ARNESSING NIAGARA"— the phrase has 
been a commonplace for a generation; but 
until very recently indeed it was nothing more 
than a phrase. Almost since the time when the Falls 
were first viewed by a white man the idea of utilizing 
their powers has been dreamed of. But until our own 
day — mitil the last decade — science had not shown 
a way in which the great current could be economically 
shackled. A few puny mill-wheels have indeed re- 
volved for thirty years or so, but these were of no 
greater significance than the thousands of others driven 
by mountain streams or by the currents of ordinary 
rivers. But about a decade ago the engineering skill of 
the world was placed in commission, and to-day Niagara 
is fairly in harness. 

If you have ever seen Niagara — and who has not seen 
it? — you must have been struck with the metamor- 
phosis that comes over the stream about half a mile 
above the falls. Above this point the river flows with 
a smooth sluggish current. Only fifteen feet have the 
waters sunk in their placid flowing since they left Lake 
Erie. But now in the course of half a mile they are 
pitched down more than two hundred feet. If you 
follow the stream toward this decline you shall see it 

[183] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

undergo a marvelous change. Of a sudden the placid 
waters seem to feel the beckoning of a new impulse. 
Caught with the witchery of a new motion, they go 
swirling ahead with unwonted Hit and plunge, calling out 
with ribald voices that come to the ear in an inchoate 
chorus of strident, high-pitched murmurings. Each 
wavelet seems eager to hurry on to the full fruition of 
the cataract. It lashes with angry foam each chance 
obstruction, and gurgles its disapproval in ever-changing 
measures. Even to the most thoughtless observer the 
mighty current thus unchained attests the sublimity 
of almost irresistible power. Could a mighty mill-wheel 
be adjusted in that dizzy current, what labors might it 
not perform? Five miUion tons of water rush down 
this decline each hour, we are told; and the force that 
thus goes to waste is as if three million unbridled 
horses exhausted their strength in ceaseless plunging. 
This estimate may be only a guess, but it matters not 
whether it be high or low; all estimates are futile, all 
comparisons inadequate to convey even a vague con- 
ception of the majesty of power with which the mighty 
waters rush on to their final plunge into the abysm. 

It is here, you might well suppose, where the appall- 
ing force of the current is made so tangible, that man 
would place the fetters of his harness, making the 
madcap current subject to his will. You will perhaps 
more than half expect to see gigantic mechanisms of 
man's construction built out over the rapids or across 
the face of the cataract — so much has been said of 
aestheticism versus commercialism in connection with 
the attempt to utilize Niagara's power. But whatever 

[184] 



NIAGARA IN HARNESS 

your fears in this regard, they will not be realized. In- 
spect the rapids and the falls as you may, you will see 
no evidence that man has tampered with their pristine 
freedom. Subtler means have been employed to tame 
the wild steed. The mad waves that go dashing down 
the rapids are as free and untrammeled to-day as they 
were when the wild Indian was the only witness of their 
tempestuous activity. Such portions of the current as 
reach the rapids have full license to pass on untram- 
meled, paying no toll to man. The water which is 
made to pay tribute is drawn from the stream up there 
above the rapids, where it lies placid and as yet unstirred 
by the beckoning incline. To see Niagara in harness, 
then, you must leave the cataract and the rapids and 
pass a full mile up the stream where the great river 
looks as calm as the Hudson or the Mississippi, and 
where, under ordinary conditions, not even the sound 
of the falls comes to your ear. 

Prosaic enough it seems to observe here nothing 
more startKng than a broad cul de sac of stagnant water, 
like the beginning of a broad canal, extending in for a 
few hundred yards only from the main stream; its 
waters silent, currentless, seemingly impotent. This 
stagnant pool, then, not the whirling current below, 
is to furnish the water whose reserve force of energy 
of position is drawn upon to serve man's greedy purpose. 
Coming from the rapids and cataract to this stagnant 
canal, you seem to step from the realm of poetic beauty 
to the sordid realities of the work-a-day world. Of a 
truth it would seem that ''harnessing Niagara" is but 
a far-fetched metaphor. 

[185] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

WITHIN THE POWER-HOUSE 

And yet if you will turn aside from the canal and 
enter one of the long, low buildings that flank it on 
either side, you will soon be made to feel that the meta- 
phor was amply justified. Little as there was exteriorly 
to suggest it, you are entering a fairyland of appHed 
science, and within these plain walls you shall witness 
evidences of the ingenuity of man that should appeal 
scarcely less to your imagination than the sight of the 
cataract itself in all its sublimity of power. 

For within these walls, by a miracle of modern 
science, the potential energy which resides in the water 
of the canal is transformed into an electrical current 
which is sent out over a network of wires to distant 
cities to perform a thousand necromantic tasks, — pro- 
pelling a street car in one place, effecting chemical de- 
compositions in another; turning the wheels of a factory 
here and lighting the streets of a city there ; in short, sub- 
serving the practical needs of man in devious and won- 
derful ways. 

Even as you gazed disdainfully at the stagnant canal, 
its waters, miraculously transformed, were propelling 
the trolley cars along the brink of the cliff over there 
on the Canadian shore, and at the same time were tum^ 
ing the wheels in many a factory in the distant city of 
Buffalo. After all, then, the quiet pool of water was 
not so prosaic as it seemed. 

As you stand in the building where this wonderful 
transformation of power is effected, the noble simplicity 
of the vista heightens the mystery. The most significant 

[i86] 




VIEW IN ONE OF THE POWER HOUSES AT NIAGARA. 

Each of the top-hke dynamos generates 5000 horse-power. 



NIAGARA IN HARNESS 

thing that strikes the eye is a row of great mushroom- 
like affairs, for all the world like giant tops, that stand 
spinning — and spinning. These great tops are about a 
dozen feet in diameter. They are whirling, so we are 
told, at a rate of two hundred and fifty revolutions per 
minute. Hour after hour they spin on, never varying 
in speed, never faltering; day and night are alike to 
them, and one day is like another. They are as cease- 
lessly active, as unwearying as Niagara itself, whose 
power they symbolize; and, like the great Falls, they 
murmur exultingly as they work. 

The giant tops which thus seem to bid defiance to the 
laws of motion are in reality electric dynamos, no dif- 
ferent in principle from the electric generators with 
which some visit to a street-car power-house has doubt- 
less made you familiar. The anomalous feature of 
these dynamos — in addition to their size — is found in 
the fact that they revolve on a vertical shaft which ex- 
tends down into a hole in the earth for more than a 
hundred feet, and at the other end of which is adjusted 
a gigantic turbine water-wheel. Water from the canal 
is supplied this great turbine wheel through a steel tube 
or penstock, seven feet in diameter. As the turbine 
revolves under stress of this mighty column of water, the 
long shaft revolves with it, thus turning the electric gen- 
erator at the other end of the shaft — the generator at 
which we are looking, and which we have likened to a 
giant top — without the interposition of any form of 
gearing whatever. 

To gain a vivid mental picture of the apparatus, we 
must take an elevator and descend to the lower regions 

[187] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

where the turbine wheel is in operation. As we pass 
down and down, our eyes all the time fixed on the ver- 
tical revolving shaft, which is visible through a network 
of bars and gratings, it becomes increasingly obvious 
that to speak of this shaft as standing in ''a hole in the 
ground '^ is to do the situation very scant justice. A 
much truer picture will be conceived if we think of the 
entire power-house as a monster building, about two 
hundred feet high, all but the top story being under- 
ground. What corresponds to the ground floor of the 
ordinary building is located one hundred and fifty feet 
below the earth's surface; and it is the top story which 
we entered from the street level, thus precisely reversing 
the ordinary conditions. 

PENSTOCKS AND TURBINES 

As we descend now and reach at last the lowest floor 
of the building, we step out into a long narrow room, 
the main surface of which is taken up with a series of 
gigantic turnip-shaped mechanisms, each one having a 
revolving shaft at its axis; while from its side projects 
outward and then upward a seven-foot steel tube, for all 
the world like the funnel of a steamship. This seeming 
funnel — technically termed a penstock — is in reality 
the great tube through which the massive column of 
water finds access to the turbine wheel, which of course is 
incased within the turnip-shaped mechanism at its base. 

As you stand there beside this great steel mechanism 
a sense of wonderment and of utter helplessness takes 
possession of you. As you glance down the hall at this 

[i88] 



NIAGARA IN HARNESS 

series of great water conduits, and strain your eyes up- 
ward in the endeavor to follow the great funnel to its 
very end, an oppressive sense of the irresistible weight 
of the great column of water it supports comes to you, 
and you can scarcely avoid a feeling of apprehension. 
Suppose one of the great tubes were to burst? — we 
should all be drowned like rats in a hole. There is small 
danger, to be sure, of such a contingency ; but it is well 
worth while to have stood thus away down here at the 
heart of the great power-house to have gained an awed 
sense of what man can accomplish toward rivaling the 
wonders of nature. To have stood an hour ago on the 
ice bridge at the foot of the most tremendous cataract in 
the world, where Nature exhausts her powers amidst the 
mad rush and roar of seething waters ; and now to stand 
beneath this other column of water which effects a no 
less wonderful transformation of energy, serenely, 
silently, — is to have run such a gamut of emotions as few 
other hours in all your Hfe can have in store for you. 

A MIRACULOUS TRANSFORMATION OF ENERGY 

There are eleven of these great turbine mechanisms, 
each with a supplying funnel of water and a revolving 
shaft extending upward to its companion dynamo, in 
the room in which we stand. Energy representing fifty- 
five thousand horse-power is incessantly transformed 
and made available for man's use in the subterranean 
building in which we stand. And there is not a pound 
of coal, not a lick of flame, not an atom of steam in- 
volved in the transformation. There are no dust- 

[189] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

grimed laborers; there is no glare of furnace, no glow of 
heat, no stifling odor of burning fuel ; — there is only the 
restful hum of the machinery that responds to the cease- 
less flow of the silent and invisible waters. Day and 
night the mighty river here pulls away at its turbine 
harness; and man, having once adjusted that harness, 
may take his ease and enjoy the fruits of his ingenuity. 
As we return now to the top of the building, we shall 
view the spinning dynamos with renewed interest, and a 
few facts regarding their output of energy may well claim 
our attention. In their principle of action, as we have 
seen, all dynamos are ahke, — depending upon the 
mutual relations between the wire-wound armature and 
a magnetic field. In the present case the magnets are 
made to revolve and the armatures are stationary, 
but this is a mere detail. There is one feature of these 
dynamos, however, which is of greater importance, — 
the fact namely that they operate without commutators, 
and therefore produce alternating currents. This fact 
has an important bearing upon the distribution of the 
current. Each of the dynamos before us generates the 
equivalent of five thousand horse-power of energy. 
There are eleven such d3mamos here before us; there 
are ten more in the power-house on the other side of the 
canal, giving a total of one hundred and five thousand 
horse-power for this single plant; and there are five 
such plants now in existence or in course of construc- 
tion to utiHze the waters of Niagara, three being on 
the Canadian shore. When in full operation the ag- 
gregate output of these plants will be six or seven 
himdred thousand horse-power. 

[190] 



NIAGARA IN HARNESS 

SUBTERRANEAN TAIL-RACES 

As we step from the door of the power-house and 
stand again beside the canal whose waters produce the 
wonderful effects we have witnessed in imagination, 
one question remains to be answered: What becomes 
of the water after it has passed through the turbine 
wheels down there in the depths? The answer is 
simple: All the water from the various turbines flows 
away into a great subterranean canal which passes 
down beneath the city of Niagara Falls, and discharges 
finally at the level of the rapids a few hundred yards be- 
low the Falls. The construction of this subterranean 
canal would in itself have been considered a great 
engineering feat a few decades ago; but of late years 
mountain tunnels, such subterranean railways as the 
London ^^tube system" and tunnels beneath rivers have 
robbed such structures of their mystery. It may be 
added that another such subterranean canal, to serve 
as a tail-race for one of the new Canadian plants, ex- 
tends beneath the cataract itself, discharging not far from 
the centre of the Horsehoe Falls. Another of the power 
companies utiHzes the water of the old surface canal 
which extends to the brink of the gorge some distance 
below the Falls. Yet another company on the Canadian 
side conveys water from far above the rapids in a gigan- 
tic closed tube to the brink of the gorge just below the 
Canadian Falls, above the point where their power-house 
is located. 

But the principle involved is everywhere the same. 
The idea is merely to utiKze the weight of falHng water. 

[191] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

The water of Niagara River is of course no different 
from any other body of water of equal size. It is merely 
that its unique position gives the engineer an easy op- 
portunity to utilize the potential energy that resides 
in any body of water — or, for that matter, in any other 
physical substance — lying at a high level. In due 
course, doubtless, other bodies of water, such as 
mountain lakes and mountain streams will be similarly 
put into electrical harness. The electrical feature is of 
course the one that most appeals to the imagination. 
But it may be well to recall that the ultimate source of all 
the power in question is gravitation. People fond of 
philosophical gymnastics may reflect with interest that, 
according to the newest theory, gravitation itself is, in 
the last analysis, an electrical phenomenon — a reflec- 
tion which, it will be noted, leads the mind through a 
very curious cycle. 

THE EFFECT ON THE FALLS 

Much soHcitude has been expressed as to the possible 
effect, upon the Falls themselves, of this withdrawal 
of water. For the present, it is admitted, there is no 
visible effect; and to the casual observer it may seem 
that almost any quantity of water the power-houses 
are likely to need might be withdrawn without seriously 
marring the wonderful cataract. But the statistics sup- 
pHed by the power companies, taken in connection with 
estimates as to the bulk of water that passes over the 
Falls, do not support this optimistic view. Taking 
what seems to be a reasonable estimate for a basis of 

[192] 



NIAGARA IN HARNESS 

computation it would appear that when the power- 
houses now rapidly approaching completion are in full 
operation, the total withdrawal of water from the 
stream will represent a very appreciable fraction of its 
entire bulk — one- twenty-fifth at the very least, per- 
haps as much as one-tenth. Such a diminution as this 
will by no means ruin the Falls, yet it would seem as if it 
must sensibly affect them, particularly at some places 
near Goat Island, where the water flows at present in 
a very shallow stream. Be that as it may, however, 
the power-houses are there, and it is probable that their 
number will be added to as years go on. Whether com- 
mercialism or gestheticism will win in the end, it re- 
mains for the legislators of the future to decide. 

Meanwhile, it is gratifying to reflect that for the 
present the Falls retain their pristine beauty, even 
though part of the water that is their normal due is 
turned aside and made to do service for man in an- 
other way. There is only one reason why the Falls have 
escaped desecration so long as they have; that reason 
being the very practical one that until quite recently 
man has not known how to utiHze their powers to ad- 
vantage. The effort was indeed made, a full genera- 
tion ago, through the construction of the canal leading 
from the upper river to the bluffs overlooking the gorge 
below the cataract. Here a few mill-wheels were set 
whirling, and a tiny fraction of the potential energy of 
the water was utilized. There was no mechanical 
difficulty involved in the utilization of this power. 
Mill-wheels are a familiar old-time device, and even the 
turbine wheel is modern only in a relative sense of the 
VOL. VI.— 13 [ 193 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

word. And it must be understood that the turbine 
water-wheel utiHzes the greatest proportion of the power 
of faUing water of any contrivance as yet known to 
mechanics. It was possible, then, to utilize the water 
of Niagara with full effectiveness fifty years ago, so far 
as the direct action of the water-wheel upon machinery 
near at hand was concerned. The sole difficulty lay 
in the fact that only a small amount of machinery can be 
placed in any one location. The real problem was not 
how to produce the power, but how to transmit it to a 
distance. 

THE TRANSMISSION OF POWER 

For fifty years mechanical engineers have looked 
enviously upon unshackled Niagara, and have striven 
to solve the problem of transmitting its power. It were 
easy enough to harness the great Fall, but futile to do 
so, so long as the power generated must be used in the 
immediate vicinity. So, many schemes for transmitting 
power were tried one after another, and as often 
laid aside. There was one objection to even the best of 
them — the cost. At one time it was thought that com- 
pressed air might solve the problem. But repeated ex- 
periments did not justify the hope. Then it was be- 
lieved that the storage battery might be made available. 
The storage battery, it might be explained, does not 
really store electricity in the sense in which the Leyden 
jar, for example, stores it. Rather is it to be Hkened to 
an ordinary voltaic cell, the chemical ingredients of 
which have been rendered active by the passage of the 

[194] 



NIAGARA IN HARNESS 

electric current. The active ingredients of the storage 
battery are usually lead compounds, which through 
action of the electric currents have been decomposed and 
placed in a state of chemical instabihty. The dis- 
sociated molecule of the lead compound, when per- 
mitted to reunite with the atoms with which it was 
formerly associated, will give up electrical energy. 

Such a storage battery might readily be charged with 
electricity generated at Niagara Falls. It might then 
be conveyed to any part of the world, and, its poles 
being connected, the charge of electricity would be 
made available. Such storage batteries are in common 
use in connection with electric automobiles, as we have 
seen. But the great difficulty is that they are enormously 
heavy in proportion to the amount of electricity that 
they can generate; therefore, their transportation is 
difficult and expensive. In practice it is cheaper to 
produce electricity through the operation of a steam 
engine in a distant city than to transmit the electricity 
with the aid of a storage battery from Niagara. So the 
storage battery served as little as compressed air to solve 
the engineer's problem. 

When the electric dynamo became a commercial 
success for such purposes as the operation of trolley 
lines it seemed as if the Niagara problem was on the 
verge of solution. And so, in point of fact, it really was, 
though more time was required for it than at first 
seemed needed. The power generated by the dynamo 
could, indeed, be transmitted along a wire, but not 
without great loss. Sir WilHam Siemens, in 1877, had 
pointed out in connection with this very subject of the 

[195] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

wasted power of Niagara, that a thousand horse- 
power might be transmitted a distance of, say, thirty 
miles over a copper rod three inches in diameter. But 
a copper rod three inches in diameter is enormously 
expensive, and when Siemens further stated that sixty 
per cent of the power involved would be lost in trans- 
mission, it was obvious that the method was far too 
wasteful to be commercially practicable. 

For a time the experimenters with the transmission of 
electricity along a wire were on the wrong track. They 
were experimenting with a continuous current which, 
as we have seen, is produced from an ordinary dynamo 
with the aid of a commutator. But hosts of experiments 
finally made it clear that this form of current, no matter 
how powerful it might be, is unable to traverse consider- 
able distance without great loss, being frittered away in 
the form of heat. 

But the very term ^'continuous current" impHes the 
existence of a current that is not continuous. In point 
of fact, we have already seen that a dynamo, if not sup- 
plied with a commutator, will produce what is called an 
alternating current, and such a current has long been 
known to possess properties peculiar to itself. It is, 
in effect, an interrupted current, and it is sometimes 
spoken of as if it really consisted of an alternation of 
currents which move first in one direction and then in 
another. Such a conception is not really justifiable. 
The more plausible explanation is that the alternating 
current is one in which the electrons are not evenly dis- 
tributed and move with irregular motion. Perhaps we 
may think of the individual electrons of such a current as 

[196] 



NIAGARA IN HARNESS 

oscillating in their flight, and, as it were, boring their 
way into the resisting medium. In any event, expe- 
rience shows that such a current, under proper condi- 
tions, may be able to traverse a conducting wire for a 
long distance with relatively small loss. 

It must be understood, however, that the mere fact 
that a current alternates is not in itself sufficient to 
make feasible its transmission to a remote distance. 
To meet all the requirements a current must be of very 
high voltage. This means, in so far as we can represent 
the conditions of one form of energy in the terms of 
another, that it shall be under high pressure. Fortunately 
a relatively simple apparatus enables the electrician to 
transform a current from low to high voltage without 
difficulty. And so at last the problem of transmitting 
power to a distance of many miles has been solved. Elec- 
trical currents representing thousands of horse-power 
are to-day transmitted from Niagara Falls to the city of 
Buffalo over ordinary wires, with a loss that is relatively 
insignificant. A plant is in process of construction that 
will similarly transmit the power to Toronto ; and it is 
predicted that in the near future the powers of Niagara 
will be drawn upon by the factories of cities even as far 
distant as New York and Chicago. Practical difficul- 
ties still stand in the way of such very distant trans- 
mission, to be sure, but these are matters of detail, and 
are almost certain to be overcome in the near future. 

All this being explained, it will be understood that 
the sole reason why the new power-houses at Niagara 
generate electricity is that electricity is the one readily 
transportable carrier of energy. We have already ex- 

[197] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

plained that there is loss of energy when the steam 
engine operates the dynamo. At Niagara, of course, no 
steam is involved ; it is the energy of falling water that is 
transformed into the energy of the electrical current. 
Moreover, the revolving dynamo is attached to the same 
shaft with the turbine water-wheel, so that there is no 
loss through the interposition of gearing. Yet even so, 
the electric current that flows from the dynamo repre- 
sents somewhat less of energy than the water current 
that flows into the turbine. This loss, however, is com- 
pensated a thousandfold by the fact that the energy of 
the electric current may now be distributed in obedience 
to man's will. 

"step up" and '^step down" transformers 

The dynamos in operation at Niagara do not differ in 
principle from those in the street-car power-house, ex- 
cept in the fact that they are not supplied with commuta- 
tors. We have seen that these dynamos are of enor- 
mous size. Those already in operation generate five 
thousand horse-power ; others in process of construction 
wall develop ten thousand. The generator which pro- 
duces this enormous current is about eleven feet in 
diameter, and it makes two hundred and fifty revolu- 
tions per minute. The armatures are so wound that the 
result is an alternating current of electricity of twenty- 
two hundred volts. This current represents, it has been 
said, raw material which is to be variously transformed 
as it is supplied to different uses. To factories near at 
hand, indeed, the current of twenty- two hundred volts 

[198] 




ELECTRICAL TRANSFORMERS. 

The upper figure shows Ferranti's experimental transformer built in 1888. It 
has a closed iron circuit, built up of thin strips filhng the interior of the coil and 
having their ends bent over and overlapping outside. The lower figure shows a 
simple transformer known as Sturgeon's induction coil. The middle figure gives a 
view of the series of converters in the power house of the Manhattan Elevated 
Railway. 



NIAGARA IN HARNESS 

is supplied unchanged ; but for more distant consump- 
tion it is raised to ten thousand volts; and that por- 
tion which is sent away to the factories of Buffalo and 
other equally distant places is raised to twenty-two 
thousand volts. 

The transformation from a relatively low voltage 
to the high one is effected by means of what is called a 
step-up transformer. This is an apparatus which brings 
into play a principle of electric induction not very dif- 
ferent from that which was responsible for the genera- 
tion of the current of electricity in the dynamo. The 
principle is that evidenced in the familiar laboratory 
apparatus known as the Ruhmkorff coil. The trans- 
former consists essentially of a primary coil of relatively 
large wire, surrounded by, but insulated from, a second- 
ary coil of relatively fine wire. When the interrupted 
current is sent through the primary coil of such an ap- 
paratus, an induced counter-current is generated in the 
secondary coil. Of course there is no gain in the actual 
quantity of electricity, but the voltage of the current 
generated in the finer wire is greatly increased. For 
example, as we have seen, the current that came from 
the dynamo at twenty-two hundred volts is raised to 
ten thousand or twenty-two thousand volts. These 
proportions may be varied indefinitely by varying the 
relative sizes and lengths of the primary and secondary 
coils. 

How shall we picture to ourselves the actual change 
in the current represented by this difference in voltage ? 
We might prove, readily enough, that the difference is a 
real one, since a wire carrying a current of low voltage 

[199] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

may be handled with impunity, while a similar wire 
carrying a current of high voltage may not safely be 
touched. But when we attempt to visualize the dif- 
ference in the two currents we are all at sea. We may 
suppose, of course, that electrons spread out over a long 
stretch of ths secondary coil must be more widely scat- 
tered. One can conceive that the electrons, thus rela- 
tively unimpeded, may acquire a momentum, and hence 
a penetrative power, which they retain after they are 
crowded together in a straight conductor. But this sug- 
gestion at best merely hazards a guess. 

Arrived at the other end of its journey, the current 
which travels under this high voltage is retransformed 
into a low-voltage current by means of an apparatus 
which simply reverses the conditions of the step-up 
transformer, and which, therefore, is called a step- 
down transformer. The electricity which came to 
Buffalo as a twenty- two- thousand- volt current is thus 
reduced by any desired amount before it is appHed to 
the practical purposes for which it is designed. It may, 
for example, be '^stepped-down" to two thousand volts 
to supply the main wires of an electric- lighting plant; 
and then again ^'stepped-down" to two hundred volts 
to supply the electric lamps of an individual house. 

Who that reads by the light of one of these electric 
lamps, let us say in Buffalo, and realizes that he is read- 
ing by the transformed energy of Niagara River, dare 
affirm that in our day there is nothing new under the 
sun ? 



[200] 



XI 

THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

ONE great fundamental advantage that man has 
won over the other animals is that although by 
nature a diurnal animal he has made night al- 
most equally subject to his dominion through the use of 
artificial light. He thus establishes an average day of 
sixteen or eighteen hours in place of the twelve-hour day 
within which his activities would otherwise be restricted. 
Of course this conquest of the night began at an early 
stage of the human development, since a certain famihar- 
ity with the uses of fire was attained long before man 
came out of the ages of savagery. But when the transi- 
tion had been made from the primitive torch to the 
simplest type of lamp, there was for many centuries a 
cessation of progress in this direction, and it remained 
for comparatively recent generations to provide more 
efficient methods of Hghting. Indeed, the culminating 
achievements are matters which make the most recent 
history. It is the purpose of the ensuing pages to nar- 
rate the story of the successive practical achievements 
through which man has been enabled virtually to turn 
night into day. 

[201] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

PRIMITIVE TORCH AND OPEN LAMP 

To moderns, in an age when even the time-honored 
gas jets and kerosene lamps are regarded as obsolescent, 
that ancient form of illuminant, the candle, seems about 
the most primitive form of light-producing apparatus. 
In point of fact, however, the candle holds no such 
place in the chronological order of lighting-device dis- 
covery, being a relatively late innovation. Indeed, lamps 
of various kinds, even those burning petroleum, were 
used thousands of years before the relatively clean and 
effective candle was invented. 

The camp fires of primitive man must have suggested 
the use of a fire-brand for lighting purposes almost as 
soon as the discovery of fire itself; but the development 
of any means of lighting his caves or rude huts, even in 
the form of torches, was probably a slow process. For 
our earliest ancestors were not the nocturnal creatures 
their descendants became early in the history of civiliza- 
tion. To them the period of darkness was the time for 
sleeping, and their waking hours were those between 
dawn and dusk. It was only when man had reached a 
relatively high plane above the other members of the 
animal kingdom, therefore, that he would wish to pro- 
long the daylight, and then the use of the torch made of 
some resinous wood would naturally suggest itself. 

Just when the ancient lamp was invented in the form 
of a vessel filled with oil into which some kind of wick 
was dipped, cannot be ascertained, but its invention 
certainly antedated the Christian Era by several cen- 
turies. And it is equally certain that once this smoky, 

[ 202] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

foul-smelling lamp had been discovered, it remained in 
use, practically without change or improvement, until 
the end of the twelfth century, the date of the inven- 
tion of the candle. Such lamps were used by the Greeks 
and Romans, great quantities of them being still pre- 
served. They were simply shallow, saucer-like vessels 
for holding the oil, into which the wick was laid, so ar- 
ranged that the upper end rested against the edge of the 
vessel. Here the oil burned and smoked, capillarity 
supplying oil to the burning end of the wick, which was 
pulled up from time to time as it became shortened by 
burning, either with pincers made for the purpose, or 
perhaps more frequently by the ever useful hairpin of 
the matron. 

As the thick wick did not allow the air to penetrate 
to bum the carbon of the oil completely, a nauseous 
smoke was given off constantly which was stifling when 
a draught of air prevented its escape through the hole in 
the roof — the only chimney used by the Greeks. And 
since this was the only kind of lamp known at the time, 
the palace of the Roman Emperor and hut of the Roman 
peasant were necessarily alike in their methods of lighting 
if in little else. The Emperor's lamps might be modeled 
of gold and set with precious stones, while those of the 
peasant were of rudely modeled clay; but each must 
have evoked, along with its dim light, an unwholesome 
modicum of smoke and malodor. 

It was this form of lamp, practically unaltered ex- 
cept occasionally in design, that remained in common use 
during the Middle Ages; and when, at the close of the 
twelfth century, the ^'tallow candle" was invented, 

[203] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

that now despised device must have been almost as 
revolutionary in its effect as the incandescent burner 
and the electric bulb were destined to be in a more recent 
generation. It burned with dazzling brilliancy in com- 
parison with the oil lamp ; it gave off no smoke and Httle 
smell; it needed no care, and it occupied little space. 
Then for the first time in the history of the world reason- 
ably good house illumination became possible. Several 
additional centuries elapsed, however, before the idea 
was developed of placing a candle in a covered glass- 
sided receptacle, to form a lantern or a street lamp. 

For generations the candle held supreme place, 
though its cost made it something of a luxury; doubly so 
if wax was substituted for tallow in its composition. 
But toward the close of the eighteenth century, when 
the action of combustion had begun to be better under- 
stood, attempts were made to improve the wicks and 
burners of oil lamps. In 1 783, an inventor named Leger, 
of Paris, produced a burner using a broad, fiat, ribbon- 
Hke wick in which practically every part of the oil 
supply was brought into contact with the air, producing, 
therefore, a steady flame relatively free from smoke. 
The flame, while broad, was extremely thin, and its 
light was consequently radiated very unevenly. Por- 
tions of a room lying in the direction of the long axis of 
the flame were but poorly lighted. To overcome this 
difficulty, a curved form of burner was adopted; and 
this led eventually to the invention of the circular Ar- 
gand burner, the prototype of the best modern lamp- 
burners. 

[204] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

TALLOW CANDLE AND PERFECTED OIL LAMP 

Stated in scientific terms, the problem of the ideal 
lamp-wick resolves itself into a question of how to 
supply oxygen to every portion of the flame in sufficient 
quantities to bring all the carbon particles to a tempera- 
ture at which they are luminous. It occurred to Argand 
that this could be done by giving the wick a circular form 
like a cylindrical tube, giving the air free access to the 
centre of the tube as well as to its outer surface. In his 
lamp the reservoir of oil was placed at a Httle distance 
from, and slightly above, the tube holding the burner, 
connected with it by a small tube much as the tank of 
the modern '^student lamp" connects with the burner. 
In this manner a fairly good lamp was produced, — a 
decided improvement over any made heretofore, — 
and when, in 1765, Quinquet added a glass chimney to 
this lamp a new epoch of artificial lighting was inaugu- 
rated. '^This date is of as much importance in artificial 
lighting as is 1789 in politics," says one writer. *^ Be- 
tween the ancient lamps and the lamps of Quinquet 
there is as much difference as between the chimney-place 
of our parlors and the fireplaces of our original Aryan 
ancestors, formed by a hole dug in the ground in the 
centre of their cabins." 

A little later Carcel still further improved the Quin- 
quet lamp by adapting a clock movement that forced 
the oil to rise to the wick, so that it was no longer neces- 
sary to have the burner and the reservoir separated by a 
tube. This was still further improved upon by substi- 
tuting a spring for the clockwork, the result being a lamp 

[205] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

of great simplicity, yet one which gave such results that 
it replaced the candle as a unit for measuring the illumi- 
nating power of different sources of light. 

These various burners should not be confused with 
the modern burners of the ordinary kerosene lamps. 
Mineral oils had not as yet come into use for illumi- 
nating purposes, except as torches or in simple lamps like 
those of the Romans, as refining processes had not been 
perfected, and the smoke and odors from crude petro- 
leum were absolutely intolerable in closed rooms. 

Many other substances were tried in place of the heavy 
oils, such as the volatile hydrocarbons and alcohols, but 
with no great success. Early in the nineteenth cen- 
tury a lamp burning turpentine, under the name of 
"camphine," was invented that gave a good light and 
was smokeless; but like most others of its type, it was 
dangerous owing to its liabihty to explode. And it 
was not until methods of refining petroleum had been 
improved that '^ mineral-oil lamps" — the predecessors 
of the modern type of lamps — came into use. 

The invention of this type of lamp was a relatively 
easy task — a simple transition and adaptation as proc- 
esses of refining the oil were perfected. The principle 
of combustion was, of course, the same as in the Argand 
type of lamps burning animal and vegetable oils; but 
mineral oils are of such consistency that capillarity 
causes an abundant supply of oil to rise in the wick, so 
that clockwork and spring devices, such as were used 
in the Carcel lamps, could be dispensed with. 



[206] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

GAS LIGHTING 

While the rivalry between the candle and the new 
forms of lamps was at its height, and just as the lamp 
was gaining complete supremacy, a new method of 
artificial illumination was discovered that was destined 
to eclipse all others for half a century, and then finally 
to succumb to a still better form. As early as the be- 
ginning of the eighteenth century the Rev. Joseph 
Clayton, in England, had made experiments in the 
distillation of coal, producing a gas that was inflam- 
mable. A little later Dr. Stephen Hales published his 
work on Vegetable Staticks^ in which he described the 
process of distilling coal in which a definite amount of 
gas could be obtained from a given quantity of coal. 

No practical use was made of this discovery, however, 
until over half a century later. But just at the close of 
the century a Scot, William Murdoch, became interested 
in the possibilities of gases as illuminants, and finally 
demonstrated that coal gas could be put to practical 
use. In 1798, being employed in the workshops of 
Boulton and Watt in Birmingham, he fitted up an ap- 
paratus in which he manufactured gas, lighting the work- 
shops by means of jets connected by tubes with this 
primitive plant. Shortly after this, a Frenchman, M. 
Lebon, lighted his house in Paris with gas distilled from 
wood, and the Parisians soon became interested in the 
new illuminant. England seems to have been the first 
country to use it extensively in public buildings, however, 
the London Lyceum Theatre being lighted with gas in 
1803. By 1 8 10 the great Gas-Light and Coke Company 

[207] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

was formed, and within the next five years gas street- 
lamps had become famiHar objects in the streets of 
London, and house illumination by this means a com- 
mon thing among the wealthier classes. 

In the early days of gas-lighting the results were 
frequently disappointing, because no suitable and 
efficient type of burner had been devised; but in 1820 
Neilson of Glasgow discovered the principle of the 
now familiar flat burner, of which more examples still 
remain in use the world over than of all other kinds 
combined. Indeed, this simple, but as we now regard 
it, inefficient burner, would probably have remained the 
best-known type for many years longer than it did had 
not the possibilities of lighting by electricity aroused 
persons interested in the great gas-plants to the fact 
that the new illuminant was jeopardizing their enormous 
investments; making it clear that they must bestir 
themselves and improve their flat burners if they would 
arrest disaster. To be sure, several modifications of the 
round Argand burner had been introduced from time 
to time, some of them being a distinct improvement 
over the flat burner, but these did not by any means 
seriously compete with electric light. And it was not un- 
til the incandescent mantle was perfected that gas as a 
brilliant illuminant was able to make a stand against 
its new competitor. 

THE INCANDESCENT GAS MANTLE 

It has been known almost since the beginnings of 
civilization that all solids can be made to emit light 

[208] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

when heated to certain temperatures. Some sub- 
stances were known to be pecuHarly adapted to this 
purpose, such as lumps of lime, and for many years the 
calcium light or '4ime-light" as it is popularly called, 
had been in use for special purposes, and was the most 
intense light known. This light is made by heating 
a block of lime to the highest practicable temperature 
by means of a blast of oxygen and coal gas; but such 
lights were too complicated and expensive for general 
purposes. It had been determined even as early as the 
beginning of the nineteenth century, however, that the 
high temperature necessary for producing this Hght 
was due in part at least to the fact that such a large 
amount of material had to be raised to incandescence. 
It was evident, therefore, that if a small amount of some 
such substance as Hme and magnesia could be spread 
out so as to present a large surface in a small space, such 
as is represented by basket-work, sufficient heat for 
making it incandescent might be obtained from an 
orf'inary gas-and-air blowpipe. 

Here then was the germ of the ''mantle'* idea; and 
such an apparatus, known as the Clamond mantle, 
which was made of threads of calcined magnesia, was 
shown at the Crystal Palace Exhibition, in London, 
in 1882. Curiously enough, this mantle and burner 
worked in an inverted position, the mantle being sus- 
pended bottom upwards below the burner through 
which the blast of gas was forced. The light given by 
this mantle was most brilliant — little short of the older 
calcium light, in fact — but the device itself was too 
compHcated to be of service for ordinary lighting 

VOL. VI.— 14 [ 209 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

purposes. The principle was correct, but the construc- 
tion of the mantle was defective. 

Meanwhile a German scientist, Dr. Auer von Wels- 
bach, who had become famous in the scientific world 
for his researches on rare metals, was experimenting 
with certain oxides of different metals, and developing 
a method of handling them that finally resulted in the 
perfected incandescent burner in use at present. His 
process, which in theory at least was not entirely original 
with him, was to dip an open fabric of cotton into a 
solution of the nitrates of the metals to be used, drying 
it, and converting the nitrates into oxides by burning; 
the cotton fabric disappearing but leaving the skeleton 
of the oxide, which retained its original shape. 

At the same time corresponding improvements were 
made in the type of burner, which is quite as essential 
to success as the mantle itself. It had been found that 
it was absolutely essential for such a burner to give a 
practically non-luminous flame, as otherwise the deposit 
of carbon particles will ruin the mantle. Two ways of 
obtaining this are possible; one by mixing a certain 
quantity of air with the gas before combustion, the other 
to bum the gas in so thin a flame that the air permeates 
it freely. Several burners of both types were used at 
first, but gradually the burners in which the air is 
mixed with the gas became the more popular, and most 
of the incandescent burners now on the market are of 
this type. 

In the construction of mantles at the present time, 
while the principle of their use remains the same as that 
of the lime-light, lime itself is not used, the oxides of 

[210] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

certain other metals having proved better adapted for 
the purpose. Thus the Welsbach patent of 1886 covered 
the use of thoria, either alone or mixed with other sub- 
stances such as zirconia, alumina, magnesia, etc.; 
thoria being considered as having a very high power of 
light emission. Later it was discovered that pure thoria 
emits very Httle light by itself, although it possesses 
a refractory nature that gives a stabihty to the mantle 
unequalled by any other material as yet discovered. 
When combined with a small trace of the oxides of cer- 
tain rare metals, however, such as uranium, terbium, 
or cerium, thoria mantles have a very high power of 
light emission, most modern mantles being composed 
of about ninety-nine per cent, thoria with one per cent, 
cerium. 

In the ordinary method of manufacturing such 
mantles, a cotton-net cylinder about eight inches long, 
more or less according to the size of mantle required, 
is made, one end being contracted by an asbestos thread. 
A loop of the same material, or in some cases a platinum 
wire, is fastened across the opening, to be used for 
suspending the mantle when in use. The cotton-thread 
cylinder is soaked in a solution of the nitrates of the 
metals thorium and cerium, and is then wrung out to 
remove the excess, stretched on a conical mold, and 
dried. The flame of an atmospheric burner being ap- 
plied to the upper part at the constricted position, the 
burning extends downward, converting the nitrates 
into oxides, and removing the organic matter. Con- 
siderable skill is required in this part of the process, as 
the regular shape of the mantle is largely dependent 

[211] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

upon the regularity of the burning. As a finishing process 
a flame is appHed to the inside of the mantle after it has 
cooled, to remove all traces of carbon that may remain. 

The mantle is now ready for use, but is so fragile that 
it can scarcely be touched without breaking, and such 
handling as would be necessary for shipment would be 
out of the question. It is therefore strengthened tem- 
porarily by being dipped into a mixture of collodion and 
castor oil, which, when dry, forms a firm but elastic 
jacket surrounding all parts. It is this collodion jacket 
that is burned away when the new mantle is placed on 
the burner before the gas is turned on. 

Quite recently the method of manufacturing mantles 
used by Clamond has been revived. In this method the 
cotton thread is dispensed with, the thread used being 
made from a paste containing the mantle material itself. 
The paste is placed in a proper receptacle the bottom 
of which is perforated with minute openings, and sub- 
jected to pressure, squeezing out the material in long 
filaments. When dry these are wound on bobbins, 
and, after being treated by certain chemical processes, 
are ready for weaving into mantles. It is claimed for 
mantles made on this principle that they last much 
longer and retain their light-emitting power more uni- 
formly than mantles made by the older process. 

THE INTRODUCTION OF ACETYLENE GAS 

When the incandescent mantle had been perfected 
so as to be an economical as well an as efficient light- 
giver, the position of coal gas as an illuminant seemed 

[212] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

again secured against the encroachments of its rivals, 
the arc and incandescent electric lights. But just at this 
time another rival appeared in the field that not only 
menaced the mantle lamp but the arc and incandescent 
light as well. Curiously enough, this new rival, acetylene 
gas, had been brought into existence commercially by 
the electric arc itself. For although it had been known 
as a possible illuminant for many years, the calcium 
carbide for producing it could not be manufactured 
economically until the advent of the electric furnace, 
itself the outcome of Davy's arc light. 

Even as early as 1836 an English chemist had made 
the discovery that one of the by-products of the manu- 
facture of metallic potassium would decompose water 
and evolve a gas containing acetylene; and this was 
later observed independently from time to time by 
several chemists in different countries. No importance 
was attached to these discoveries, however, and nothing 
was done with acetylene as an illuminant until the last 
decade of the nineteenth century. By this time electric 
furnaces had come into general use, and it was while 
working with one of these furnaces in 1892 that Mr. 
Thomas F. Wilson, in preparing metallic calcium from 
a mixture of lime and coal, produced a pecuHar mass of 
dark-colored material, calcium carbide, which, when 
thrown into water, evolved a gas with an extremely dis- 
agreeable odor. When lighted, this gas burned with 
astonishing brilliancy, and, as its cost of production 
was extremely small, the idea of utilizing it for illu- 
minating was at once conceived and put into practice. 

The secret of the cheap manufacture of the carbide 
[213] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

lies in the fact that the extremely high temperature 
required — about 4500° Fahrenheit — can be obtained 
economically in the electric furnace, but not otherwise. 
Thus electricity created its own greatest rival as an 
illuminant. It followed naturally that the ideal place 
for manufacturing the carbide would be at the source 
of the cheapest supply of electricity, and as the "har- 
nessed" Niagara Falls represented the cheapest source 
of electric supply, this place soon became the centre of 
the carbide industry. Here the process of manufacture is 
carried out on an enormous scale. In practice, lime 
and ground coke are thoroughly mixed in the propor- 
tion of about fifty-six parts of lime to thirty-six parts 
of coke. When this mixture has been subjected to the 
heat of the electric furnace for a short time an ingot of 
pure calcium carbide is formed, surrounded by a crust 
of less pure material. The ingot and crust together 
represent sixty-four parts of the original ninety-two 
parts of lime and coke, the remaining twenty-eight 
parts being liberated as carbon-monoxide gas. 

Calcium carbide as produced by this process is a 
dark-brown crystalline substance which may be heated 
to redness without danger or change. It will not burn 
except when heated in oxygen, and will keep indefinitely 
if sealed from the air. Chemically it consists of one 
atom of lime combined with two atoms of carbon 
(CaC2) ; and to produce acetylene gas, which is a com- 
bination of carbon and hydrogen (C2H2) it is only neces- 
sary to bring it into contact with water, acetylene gas 
and slaked lime being formed. One pound of pure 
carbide will produce five and one half cubic feet of gas 

[214] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

of greater illuminating power than any other known 
gas. The flame is absolutely white and of blinding 
brilliancy, giving a spectrum closely approximating 
that of sunlight. The light is so strongly actinic that it 
is excellent for photography. 

Here was a gas that could be made in any desired 
quantities simply by adding water to a substance costing 
only about three cents a pound ; its cost of production, 
therefore, representing only about one sixth of the 
doUar-per-thousand-feet rate usually charged for il- 
luminating gas in our cities. It could be used in lamps 
and lanterns made with special burners and with the 
simple mechanism of a small water tank which allowed 
water to drip into a receptacle holding the carbide; or 
— reversing the process — an apparatus that dropped 
pieces of carbide into the water tanks. It was, in short, 
the cheapest illuminant known, generated by an appara- 
tus that was simplicity itself. 

There were, however, two defects in this gas: its 
odor was intolerable — the "smell of decayed garlic," 
it has been aptly called — and when mixed with air it 
was highly explosive. The first of these defects could 
be overcome easily; when the burner consumed all 
the gas there was no odor. The second, the explosive 
quality, presented greater difficulties. These were em- 
phasized and magnified by the number of defective 
lamps that soon flooded the market, many of these being 
so badly constructed that explosions were inevitable. 
As a result a strong prejudice quickly arose against 
the gas, some countries passing laws prohibiting its use. 

But further inquiry into the cause of the frequent dis- 

[215] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

asters revealed the fact that when the burner of a lamp 
was constructed so that the air for combustion was 
supplied after the gas issued from the jet, there was no 
danger of explosion. And as lamps carefully con- 
structed on this principle replaced the early ones of 
faulty construction, confidence in acetylene was restored. 
Methods were devised for supplying the gas for house- 
illumination like ordinary gas, and the occupants of 
country houses were afforded a means of lighting their 
houses on a scale of brilliancy hitherto unapproached, 
yet with economy and relative safety. 

It was found also that the briUiancy of the acetylene 
flame was of such intensity that it could be used, Hke 
the electric arc Hght, as a search-Hght. It thus furnished 
a simple means of supplying small boats and vehicles 
with such Kghts, which they could not otherwise have 
had. It also suppKed army signal-corps with an ap- 
paratus for flashing messages — an apparatus that was 
ideal on account of its simphcity and small size. 

At the Pan-American Exhibition at Buffalo the 
various illuminating exhibits were among the most con- 
spicuous and attractive features. But even amid the 
dazzling electrical displays the Acetylene Building was a 
noteworthy object. "It was the most brilliantly and 
beautifully hghted building in the grounds," declared 
one observer. "It sparkled Hke a diamond, and was 
the admiration of all visitors. In it were generators of 
all types — most of them supplying the gas for their 
own exhibits — several being the latest exponents of the 
art, so simple that they can be safely managed by un- 
skilled labor; in fact, 'the brains are in the machines,' 

[216] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

and when the attendant has charged them with carbide 
and filled them with water — given them food and drink — 
they will work steadily until they need another meal." 
Indeed, these exhibits at the Pan-American Exhibition 
demonstrated conclusively that acetylene gas occupies a 
field by itself as a practical illuminant. 

At the same exposition a standard was established for 
good stationary acetylene generators for house-lighting, 
and the fact that a large number of generators fulfilled 
the requirements of the set of rules laid down showed 
how thoroughly the problem of handling this gas has 
been solved. Some of these rules used as tests are in- 
structive to anyone interested in the subject, and a few 
of them are given here. They specified, for example, 
that— 

"The carbide should be dropped into the water," 
the reverse process of letting the water drip on the car- 
bide, as was done in most of the early generators, being 
condemned. "There must be no possibiHty of mixing 
air with the acetylene gas. Construction must be such 
that an addition to the charge of carbide can be made at 
any time without affecting the lights. Generators 
must be entirely automatic in their action — that is to 
say : after a generator has been charged, it must need no 
further attention until the carbide has been entirely 
exhausted. The various operations of discharging the 
refuse, filling with fresh water, charging with carbide, 
and starting the generator must be so simple that the 
generator can be tended by an unskilled workman 
without danger of accident. When the lights are out, 
the generation of gas should cease. The carbide should 

[217] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

be fed automatically into the water in proportion to the 
gas consumed.'^ 

Perhaps the most significant thing, showing the stage 
of progress that has been made in overcoming the danger 
of explosions from acetylene gas, is that the use of 
generators meeting some such requirements as the above 
is not prohibited by fire underwriters. This in itself is 
very convincing evidence of their safety. 

THE TRIUMPH OF ELECTRICITY 

Throughout the ages primitive man had had con- 
stantly before him two sources of light other than that 
of the sun, moon, and stars. One of these, the fire of 
ordinary combustion, he could understand and utilize; 
the other, more powerful and more terrible, which flashed 
across the heavens at times, he could not even vaguely 
understand, and, naturally, did not attempt to utilize. 
But early in the seventeenth century some scientific 
discoveries were made which, although their destination 
was not even imagined at the time, pointed the w^ay 
that eventually led to man's imitating in the most strik- 
ing manner Nature's electrical illumination. 

About this time Otto von Guericke, the burgomaster- 
philosopher of Magdeburg, in the course of his numerous 
experiments, had discovered some of the properties of 
electricity, by rubbing a sulphur ball, and among other 
things had noticed that when the ball was rubbed in a 
darkened room, a faint glow of light was produced. He 
was aware, also, that in some way this was connected 
with the generation of electricity, but in what manner he 

[218] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

had no conception. In the opening years of the follow- 
ing century Francis Hauksbee obtained somewhat 
similar results with glass globes and tubes, and made 
several important discoveries as to the properties of 
electricity that stimulated an interest in the subject 
among the philosophers of the time. Gray in England, 
and Dufay in France, who became enthusiastic workers 
in the field, soon established important facts regarding 
conduction and insulation, and by the middle of the 
eighteenth century the production of an electric spark 
had become a commonplace demonstration. 

But until this time it had not been demonstrated that 
this electric spark was actual fire, although there was 
no disputing the fact that it produced light. In 1744, 
however, this point was settled definitely by the 
German, Christian Friedrich Ludolff, who projected 
a spark from a rubbed glass rod upon the surface of a 
bowl of ether, causing the liquid to burst into flame. 
A few years later Benjamin Franklin demonstrated 
with his kite and key that lightning is a manifestation 
of electricity. 

But neither the galvanic cell nor the dynamo had been 
invented at that time, and there was no possibility of pro- 
ducing anything like a sustained artificial light with the 
static electrical machines then in use. It was not until 
the classic discovery of Galvani and the resulting inven- 
tion of the voltaic, or galvanic, cell shortly after, that 
the electric light, in the sense of a sustained light, became 
possible. And even then, as we shall see in a moment, 
such a light was too expensive to be of any use com- 
mercially. 

[219] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 



DAVY AND THE FIRST ELECTRIC LIGHT 

As soon as Volta's great invention was made known 
a new wave of enthusiasm in the field of electricity swept 
over the world, for the constant and relatively tractable 
current of the galvanic battery suggested possibilities 
not conceivable with the older friction machines. Bat- 
teries containing large numbers of cells were devised; 
one having two thousand such elements being con- 
structed for Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institu- 
tion, of London. By bringing two points of carbon, 
representing the two poles of the battery, close together, 
Davy caused a jet of flame to play between them — 
not a momentary spark, but a continuous light — a true 
voltaic arc, like that seen in the modern street-light 
to-day. 

'^When pieces of charcoal about an inch long and 
one-sixth of an inch in diameter were brought near each 
other (within the thirtieth or fortieth of an inch)," 
wrote Davy in describing this experiment, '^a bright 
spark was produced, and more than half the volume of 
charcoal became ignited to whiteness; and, by with- 
drav^ing the points from each other, a constant discharge 
took place through the heated air, in a space equal to at 
least four inches, producing a most brilliant ascending 
arch of light, broad and conical in form in the middle. 
When any substance was introduced into this arch, it 
instantly became ignited ; platina melted in it as readily 
as wax in a common candle; quartz, the sapphire, 
magnesia, lime, all entered into fusion ; fragments of dia- 

[220] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

mond and points of charcoal and plumbago seemed to 
evaporate in it, even when the connection was made in 
the receiver of an air-pump ; but there was no evidence 
of their having previously undergone fusion. When 
the communication between the points positively and 
negatively electrified was made in the air rarefied in the 
receiver of the air-pump, the distance at which the dis- 
charge took place increased as the exhaustion was made ; 
and when the atmosphere in the vessel supported only 
one-fourth of an inch of mercury in the barometrical 
gauge, the sparks passed through a space of nearly 
half an inch; and, by withdrawing the points from each 
other, the discharge was made through six or seven 
inches, producing a most brilliant coruscation of purple 
light; the charcoal became intensely ignited, and 
some platina wire attached to it fused with brilliant 
scintillations and fell in large globules upon the plate 
of the pump. All the phenomena of chemical decom- 
position were produced with intense rapidity by this 
combination." 

It will be seen from this that as far as the actual 
lighting- part of Davy's apparatus was concerned, it was 
completely successful. But the source of the current 
— the most essential part of the apparatus — was such 
that even the wealthy could hardly afford to indulge in 
it as a luxury. The initial cost of two thousand cells was 
only a small item of expense compared with the cost of 
maintaining them in working order, and paying skilled 
operators to care for them. So that for the moment no 
practical results came from this demonstration, con- 
clusive though it was, and the introduction of a com- 

[221] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

mercial electric light was of necessity deferred until a 
cheaper method of generating electricity should be dis- 
covered. 

This discovery was not made for another generation, 
but then, as seems entirely fitting, it was made by Davy's 
successor and former assistant at the Royal Institution, 
Sir Michael Faraday. His discovery of electromagnetic 
induction in 1831 for the first time made possible the 
electric dynamo, although still another generation passed 
before this invention took practical form. In the mean- 
time, however, the magneto-electric machine of Nollet 
was used for generating an electric current for illumina- 
ting purposes as early as 1863; and when finally the 
d)niamo-electric machine was produced by Gramme in 
187c, engineers and inventors had at their disposal 
everything necessary for producing a practical electric 
illuminant. 

It must not be supposed, however, that inventors stood 
by patiently with folded hands waiting for the coming 
of a machine that would furnish them with an adequate 
current without attempting to produce electric lamps. 
On the contrary, they were constantly wrestling with the 
problem, in some instances being fairly successful, even 
before the invention of the magneto- electric machine. 
Great advances had been made in batteries and cell 
construction over the primitive cells of the time of Davy, 
and for exhibition purposes, and even for lighting fac- 
tories and large buildings, fairly good electric lights had 
been used before 1863. 

The first practical appHcation of electric lighting 
seems to have been made in France in 1849. During 

[222] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

the production of the opera "The Prophet" the sun was 
to appear, and for this purpose an electric arc Hght was 
used. The success of this effort — an artificial sun being 
produced that seemed almost as dazzling to the as- 
tonished audience as Old Sol himself — stimulated 
further efforts in the same direction. The previous year 
W. E. Staite in England made experiments along similar 
lines in the large hall of the hotel of Sunderland. He 
generated a light '^resembhng the sun, or the light of 
day, and making candles appear as obscure as they do 
by daylight," according to the Times of the following 
morning. The electric light was therefore proved to be a 
practical illuminator, although it was not until the intro- 
duction of the Gramme dynamo-electric machine that its 
great economic utiKty was demonstrated. 

THE JABLOCHKOFF CANDLE 

In Sir Humphry Davy's experiments with his arc 
light he was led to believe that the light between the 
two points of carbon would be produced even in an 
absolute vacuum, if it were possible to create one. 
Several scientists at the time disputed this conten- 
tion, and M. Masson, Professor of Physics in the Ecole 
Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris was par- 
ticularly active in combatting the idea, maintaining that 
the arc had the same cause as the electric spark — the 
transport by electricity of the incandescent particles of 
the electrodes through the atmosphere. It was certain, 
at any rate, that no light was produced when the op- 
posing carbons were brought into contact with each 

[223] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

other, or were, on the other hand, separated too widely; 
and since there was a constant wearing away and 
shortening of the points, and thus a constantly increas- 
ing space between them, the great difficulty in making 
a practical lamp lay in regulating this distance auto- 
matically. It was finally accomplished, however, by 
the invention of a Russian officer, M. Jablochkoff, in 
1876. The " Jablochkoff candle, " as his lamp was called, 
marked an epoch in the history of electric hghting. 
One great merit of this invention was its simpHcity, and 
while it has long since gone out of use, having been 
superseded by still simpler and better devices, it must 
always be recalled as an important stepping-stone in the 
progress of artificial illumination. 

The name "candle" for Jablochkoff' s lamp was sug- 
gested by the fact that the two carbons were placed side 
by side, instead of point to point, the light at the top 
thus suggesting a candle. Between these two carbons, 
and extending their whole length except at the very tips, 
was an insulating material that the arc could not pierce, 
but which burned away at a rate commensurate with 
the shortening of the carbons. In this manner the points 
were kept constantly at the proper distance without 
regulating-machinery of any kind. This ingenious ap- 
paratus had the additional advantage that it could be 
placed on any kind of a bracket or chandelier that was 
properly wired, thus dispensing with the cumbersome 
frames and machines of the point-to-point carbon 
arc lights then being introduced. 

One difficulty at first encountered in using the Jab- 
lochkoff candle was the starting of the voltaic arc. In 

[224] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

doing this it was necessary that contact be made be- 
tween two carbon points, whether they He parallel or 
point to point, and the necessary slight separation for 
producing the light effected later. To accomplish this 
Jablochkoff joined the tips of the carbons of his candle 
with a thin strip of carbon, which quickly burned away 
when the current was turned on, leaving the necessary 
space between the points for the arc. 

There was one difficulty with the ^^ candle" that 
seemed insurmountable for a time — the wasting of the 
two carbons was unequal, as in any arc light, the points 
thus gradually drawing apart until the passage of the 
current was no longer possible. To overcome this the 
rapidly wasting positive carbon was made double the 
thickness of its mate; but while this answered fairly 
well the thinner negative carbon gradually became 
heated by the increased resistance, and burned up too 
rapidly. The difficulty was finally overcome by the 
simple expedient of alternating the flow of the current, 
so that each carbon was alternately a positive and a 
negative pole. As the magneto-electric machines then in 
use produced alternating currents it was only necessary 
to use such machines for generating the current to 
produce an equal destruction of both carbons. 

The simpHcity and excellence of the light of these 
"candles" brought them at once into general popularity, 
not only in the large cities of Europe, but in many out- 
of-the-way places. Greece, Portugal, and other obscure 
European countries adopted them, and even Brazil, 
La Plata, and Mexico installed many plants. But 
stranger still, they were soon used for illuminating the 
VOL. VI.— 15 [225] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

palaces of the Shah of Persia and the King of Cambodia, 
and a Httle later were introduced into the residence of 
the savage King of Burma. In short, their use became 
universal almost immediately. 

THE IMPROVED ARC LIGHT 

About the time that Jablochkoff's candles were 
making such a sensation in Europe, Charles F. Brush, of 
Cleveland, Ohio, invented an arc light in which the 
carbons were set point to point, the distance being 
maintained and the necessary feed produced auto- 
matically in much the same manner as in the lamps 
used at present. Other inventions soon followed, some 
of the lamps being regulated by clockwork, some by 
electricity and magnetism. 

The advantage of this type of arc lamp over the candle 
type — an advantage that led to its general adoption — 
was largely that of efficiency, a far greater amount of 
light being obtainable from the same expenditure of 
power by the point-to-point type of lamp. 

In this lamp it is necessary that the points of carbon 
shall come in contact when the current is off, but be 
drawn apart a moment after the current is turned on, 
and remain at this fixed distance. To accompHsh this, 
the lower carbon is usually made stationary, the feeding 
being regulated by the position of the upper carbon. 
In the usual type of modern lamp the passage of the 
current causes the points to separate the required dis- 
tance through the action of an electromagnet the coils 
of which are traversed by the current. A clutch holds 

[226] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

the carbon in place, the position of this being also deter- 
mined by an electromagnet. The action is regulated by 
the difference in the resistance to the passage of the current 
caused by the increase in the separation of the pomts. 

In the older type of arc lamp it was necessary to 
'^trim'^ the Hghts by replacing the carbons every day; 
but recently lamps have been perfected in v/hich the 
carbons last from one hundred to one hundred and 
twenty hours. In these the arc is enclosed in a glass 
globe which is made as nearly air-tight as possible with 
the necessary feed devices. This closed chamber is 
fitted with a valve opening outward, which allows the 
air to be forced out by the heat of the lamp, but does not 
admit a return current. In this manner a rarefied 
chamber is produced in which the carbons are oxidized 
very slowly; yet there is no diminution in the brilHancy 
of the light. 

Early in the history of electric lighting it became ap- 
parent that the proper construction of the carbon elec- 
trodes was a highly important item in the manufacture 
of a lighting apparatus. The value of carbons depends 
largely upon their purity and freedom from ash in burn- 
ing, and it required a countless number of experiments 
to develop the highly efficient carbons now in general 
use. Davy made use of pieces of wood charcoal in his 
experiments, but these were too fragile to be of prac- 
tical value, even if their other qualities had been ideal. 
Later experimenters tried various compounds, and in 
1876 Carre in France produced excellent carbons made 
of coke, lampblack, and syrup. From these were 
developed the present carbons, usually made by mixing 

[227] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

some finely divided form of carbon, such as soot or 
lampblack made from burning paraffin or tar, with gum 
or syrup to form a paste. Rods of proper size and shape 
are made by forcing this paste through dies by hydraulic 
pressure, subsequently baking them at a high tempera- 
ture. Sometimes they are given a coating of copper, a 
thin layer of the metal being deposited upon them by 
electrolysis. 

EDISON AND THE INCANDESCENT LAMP 

The familiar incandescent electric-light bulb seems 
such a simple apparatus to-day, being nothing appar- 
ently but a small wire enclosed in an ordinary glass 
bulb, that it is almost impossible to reahze what an 
enormous amount of money, energy, and that particular 
quality of mentality which we call "genius" has been 
required to produce it. First and foremost among the 
names of the men of genius who finally evolved this 
lamp is that of Thomas A. Edison ; and only second to 
this foremost name are those of Swan, Lane-Fox, and 
Hiram Maxim. But Edison's name must stand pre- 
eminent ; and there are probably very few, even among 
Europeans, who would attempt or wish to deny him 
the enviable place as the actual perfecter of the in- 
candescent-light bulb. 

It is said that Edison first conceived the idea of an 
incandescent electric light while on a trip to the Rocky 
Mountains in company with Draper, in 1878. Be 
this as it may, he certainly set to work immediately 
after completing this journey, and never relaxed or 

[228] 




THOMAS A. EDISON AND THE DYNAMO THAT GENERATED THE FIRST COMMERCIAL ELECTRIC LIGHT. 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

ceased his efforts until a practical incandescent lamp 
had been produced. His idea was to perfect a lamp 
that would do everything that gas could do, and more; 
a lamp that would give a clear, steady light, without 
odor, or excessive heat such as was given by the arc 
lights — ^in short, a household lamp. 

Early in his experiments he abandoned the voltaic 
arc, deciding that a successful lamp must be one in 
which incandescence is produced by a strong current 
in a conductor, the heat caused by the resistance to the 
current producing the glow and light. But when search 
was made for a suitable substance possessing the neces- 
sary properties to be the incandescent material, the in- 
ventor was confronted by a vast array of difficulties. 
It was of course essential that the substance must re- 
main incandescent without burning, and at the same 
time offer a resistance to the passage of the current 
precisely such as would bring about the heating that 
produced incandescence. It should be infusible even 
under this high degree of heat, or otherwise it would 
soon disappear; and it must not be readily oxidizable, 
or it would be destroyed as by ordinary combustion. 
It should also be of material reducible to a filament 
as fine as hair, but capable of preserving a rigid form. 
These, among others, were the qualities to be con- 
sidered in selecting this apparently simple filament for 
the incandescent lamp. It was not a task for the tyro, 
therefore, that Edison undertook when he began his 
experiments for producing an ^' ideal lamp." 

The substance in nature that seemed to possess most 
of the necessary qualities just enumerated was the metal 

[229] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

platinum, and Edison began at once experimenting 
with this. He made a small spiral of very fine platinum 
wire, which he enclosed in a glass globe about the size 
of an ordinary baseball. The two ends of the wires 
connected with outside conducting wires, which were 
sealed into the base of the bulb. The air in the bulb 
had to be exhausted and a vacuum maintained to 
diminish the loss of heat and of electricity and to pre- 
vent the oxidation of the platinum. But when the cur- 
rent was passed through the spiral wire in this vacuum 
a peculiar change took place in the platinum itself. 
The gases retained in the pores of the metal at once 
escaped, and the wire took on such peculiar physical 
properties that it was supposed for a time by some 
physicists that a new metal had been produced. The 
metal acquired a very high degree of elasticity and be- 
came susceptible of a high polish Hke silver, at the same 
time becoming almost as hard as steel. It also ac- 
quired a greater calorific capacity so that it could be 
made much more luminous without fusing. To dimin- 
ish the loss of heat the wire was coated with some metal- 
lic oxide, and the slope of the spiral also aided in this 
as each turn of the spiral radiated heat upon its neigh- 
bor, thus utiHzing a certain amount that would other- 
wise have been lost. But despite all this, Edison found, 
after tedious experimenting, that platinum did not fulfil 
the requirements of a practical filament for his lamp; 
it either melted or disintegrated in a short time and be- 
came useless ; and the other experimenters had met with 
the same obstacles to its use, and were forced to the 
same conclusion. 

[230] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

Some other substance must be found. The use of 
carbon for arc Hghts and Edison's own experiments 
with carbon in his work on the telephone naturally 
suggested this substance as a possibility. It is said that 
this idea was brought forcibly to the inventor's attention 
by noticing the delicate spiral of vegetable carbon left 
in his hand after using a twisted bit of paper, one day, for 
lighting a cigar. This spiral of carbon was, of course, too 
fragile to be of use in its ordinary form. But it occurred 
to Edison that if a means of consoHdating it could be 
found, there was reason to hope that it would answer 
the purpose. Experiments were begun at once, there- 
fore, not only with processes of consolidation but also 
with various kinds of paper, and neither effort nor 
expense was spared to test every known variety of paper. 
Moreover, many new varieties of paper were manufac- 
tured at great expense from substances having peculiar 
fibres. One of these, made from a deHcate cotton grown 
on some little islands off South CaroHna, gave a carbon 
free from ash, and seemed to promise good results; 
but later it was found that the current of electricity did 
not circulate through this substance with sufficient regu- 
larity to get protracted and uniform effects. Neverthe- 
less, since many things pointed to this fibre carbon 
as the ideal substance, Edison set about determining 
the cause of the irregularity in the circulation of the 
current in the filament, and a number of other experi- 
menters soon became interested in the problem. 

It was soon determined that the arrangement of the 
fibres themselves were directly responsible for the dif- 
ficulty. In ordinary paper the fibres are pressed to- 

[231] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

gether without any special arrangement, like wool fibres 
in felting. In passing through such a substance, there- 
fore, the current cannot travel along a continuous fibre, 
but must jump from fibre to fibre, ^4ike a man crossing 
a brook on stepping-stones." Each piece of fibre 
constitutes a lamp or miniature voltaic arc, so that the 
current is no longer a continuous one; and the little 
interior sparks thus generated quickly destroy the fila- 
ment. This discovery made it apparent that such an 
artificial, feltlike substance as paper could not be made 
to answer the purpose, and Edison set about searching 
for some natural substance having fibres sufficiently 
long to give the necessary homogeneity for the passage 
of the current. 

For this purpose specimens of all the woods and fibre- 
substances of all countries were examined. Special 
agents were sent to India, China, Japan, South America, 
in quest of peculiar fibrous substances. The various 
woods thus secured were despatched to the Edison 
plant at INlenlo Park and there carefully examined and 
tested. Without dwelHng on the endless details of this 
tedious task, it may be said at once that only three sub- 
stances out of all the mass withstood the tests reasonably 
well. Of these, a species of Japanese bamboo was 
found to answer the purpose best. Thus the practical 
incandescent lamp, which had cost so much time, in- 
genuity, and money, came into existence, fulfilling the 
expectation of the most sanguine dream of its inventor. 

In using these bamboo carbon filaments the original 
spiral form of filament was abandoned, the now famihar 
elongated horseshoe being adopted, as the carbon 

[232] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

could not be bent into the tortuous shapes possible with 
platinum. Later various modifications in the shape 
of the filament were made, usually as adaptations to 
changes in the shape of the bulbs. 

At the same time that Edison was succeeding with 
his bamboo carbon filaments, J. W. Swan had been al- 
most as successful with a filament formed by treating 
cotton thread with sulphuric acid, thus producing a 
" parchmentized thread," wliich was afterwards car- 
bonized. A modification of this process eventually 
supplanted the Edison bamboo filament; and the fila- 
ment now in common use — the successor of the "parch- 
mentized thread " — is made of a form of soluble cellulose 
prepared by dissolving purified cotton wool in a solution 
of zinc chloride, and then pressing the material out into 
long threads by pressing it through a die. 

The long thread so obtained is a semi-transparent 
substance, resembling catgut, which when carbonized 
at a high temperature forms a very elastic form of carbon 
filament. To prepare the filament the cellulose threads 
are cut into the proper lengths, bent into horseshoe 
shape, double loops, or any desired form, and then folded 
round carbon formers and immersed in plumbago 
crucibles. On heating these crucibles to a high tempera- 
ture the organic matter of the filaments is destroyed, 
the carbon filaments remaining. These filaments are 
then ready for attachment to the platinum leading-in 
wires, which is accomplished either by means of a car- 
bon cement or by a carbon-depositing process. They 
are then placed in the glass bulbs and the mres her- 
metically sealed, after which the bulbs are exhausted, 

[233] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

tested, fitted with the familiar brass collars, and are 
ready for use. 

The combined discoveries of all experimenters had 
made it evident that certain conditions were necessary 
to success, regardless of the structure of the carbon 
filament. It was essential that the vessel containing 
the filament should be entirely of glass; that the current 
should be conveyed in and out this by means of platinum 
wires hermetically sealed through the glass; and that 
the glass globe must be as thoroughly exhausted as 
possible. This last requirement proved a difficult 
one for a time, but by improved methods it finally be- 
came possible to produce almost a perfect vacuum in 
the bulbs, with a corresponding increase in the efficiency 
of the lamps. 

THE TUNGSTEN LAMP 

For twenty years the carbon-filament lamp stood 
without a rival. But meanwhile the science of chem- 
istry was making rapid strides and putting at the 
disposal of practical inventors many substances 
hitherto unknown, or not available in commercial 
quantities. Among these were three metals, osmium, 
tantalum, and tungsten, and these metals soon menaced 
the apparently secure position of the highly satisfac- 
tory, although expensive, Edison lamp. 

It will be recalled that the early experimenters had 
used two metals, platinum and iridium, for lamp 
filaments; and that these two, although unsatisfac- 
tory, were the only ones that had given even a promise 

[234] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

of success. But in 1898 Dr. Auer von Welsbach took 
out patents, and in 1903 produced a lamp using an 
osmium filament. Its advent marked the beginning 
of the return to metal-filament lamps, although the 
lamp itself did not prove to be very satisfactory and 
was quickly displaced by a lamp invented by Messrs. 
Siemens and Halske, having a tantalum filament. 
On account of its ease to manufacture, its brilHant 
light, and relatively low consumption of power, this 
lamp gained great popularity at once, and for a single 
year was practically without a rival. Then, in 1904, 
patents were taken out by Just and Hanaman, Kuzel, 
and Welsbach, for lamps using filaments of tungsten, 
and the superiority of these lamps over the tantalum 
lamps gave them an immediate popularity never attained 
by either of the other metal-filament lamps. 

Needless to say there is good ground for this pop- 
ularity, which may be explained by the simple state- 
ment that the tungsten lamp gives more light with 
much less consumption of power per candle power than 
any of its predecessors. Unlike the carbon filament, 
which projects in the familiar elongated horse-shoe 
loop, or double loop, into the exhausted bulb, the tung- 
sten filament is woimd on a frame, so that several 
filaments (usually eight or more) are used for producing 
the light in each bulb. The chief defect of this lamp 
is the fragility of the filament, which breaks easily when 
subjected to mechanical vibration. On the other hand, 
tungsten lamps can be used in places at a long distance 
from the central generating plant, where the electric 
current is too weak for carbon- filament lamps. 

[235] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 



THE MERCURY- VAPOR LIGHT OF PETER COOPER HEWITT 

*^0n an evening in January, 1902, a great crowd 
was attracted to the entrance of the Engineers' Club in 
New York city. Over the doorway a narrow glass 
tube gleamed with a strange blue-green light of such in- 
tensity that print was easily readable across the street, 
and yet so softly radiant that one could look directly 
at it without the sensation of Winding discomfort which 
accompanies nearly all briUiant artificial lights. The 
hall within, where Mr. Hewitt was making the first 
pubHc announcement of his great discovery, was also 
illuminated by the wonderful new tubes. The light 
was different from anything ever seen before, grateful 
to the eyes, much like daylight, only giving the face a 
curious, pale-green, unearthly appearance. The cause 
of this phenomenon was soon evident; the tubes were 
seen to give forth all the rays except red, — orange, 
yellow, green, blue, violet, — so that under its illumination 
the room and the street without, the faces of the spec- 
tators, the clothing of the women, lost all their shades 
of red ; indeed, changing the face of the world to a pale 
green-blue. 

"The extraordinary appearance of this lamp and its 
profound significance as a scientific discovery at once 
awakened a wide pubHc interest, especially among 
electricians who best understood its importance. Here 
was an entirely new sort of electric light. The familiar 
incandescent lamp, though the best of all methods of 
illumination, is also the most expensive. Mr. Hewitt's 

[236] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

lamp, though not yet adapted to all the purposes served 
by the Edison lamp, on account of its pecuHar color, 
produces eight times as much light with the same 
amount of power. It is also practically indestructible, 
there being no filament to burn out; and it requires 
no special wiring. By means of this invention electricity, 
instead of being the most costly means of illumination 
becomes the cheapest — cheaper even than kerosene. 
No further explanation than this is necessary to show 
the enormous importance of this invention." 

As just stated, the defect of the Edison incandescent 
lamp is its cost, due to its utilizing only a small fraction 
of the power used in producing the incandescence, and, 
of much less importance, the relatively short life of 
the filament itself. Only about three per cent, of the 
actual power is utilized by the light, the remaining 
ninety-seven per cent, being absolutely wasted; and 
it was this enormous waste of energy that first at- 
tracted the attention of Mr. Hewitt, and led him to direct 
his energies to finding a substitute that would be more 
economical. A large part of the waste in the Edison 
bulb is known to be due to the conversion of the energy 
into useless heat, instead of light, as shown by the heated 
glass. Mr. Hewitt attempted to produce a light that 
would use up the power in light alone — to produce a 
cool hght, in short. 

Instead of directing his efforts to the solids, Mr. 
Hewitt turned his attention to gaseous bodies, believing 
that an incandescent gas would prove the more nearly 
ideal substance for a cool light. The field of the pas- 
sage of electricity through gases was by no means a 

[237] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

virgin one, but was nevertheless relatively unexplored: 
and Mr. Hewitt was, therefore, for the most part obliged 
to depend upon his own researches and experiments. 
In these experiments hundreds of gases were examined, 
some of them giving encouraging results, but most of 
them presenting insurmountable difficulties. Finally 
mercury vapor was tried, with the result that the light 
just referred to was produced. 

The possibilities of mercury- vapor gas had long been 
vaguely suspected — suspected, in fact, since the early 
days of electrical investigation, two centuries before. 
The English philosopher, Francis Hauksbee, as early 
as 1705 had shown that light could be produced by 
passing air through mercury in an exhausted receiver. 
He had discovered that when a blast of air was driven 
up against the sides of the glass receiver, it appeared 
' ' all round like a body of fire, consisting of an abundance 
of glowing globules," and continuing until the receiver 
was about half full of air. Hauksbee called this his 
"mercurial fountain," and although he was unable to 
account for the production of this peculiar light, which 
he remarked "resembled lightning," he attributed it 
to the action of electricity. 

Between Hauksbee's "mercurial fountain" and 
Hewitt's mercury-vapor light, however, there is a wide 
gap, and, as it happened, this gap is practically unbridged 
by intermediate experiments, for Mr. Hewitt had 
never chanced to hear anything of Hauksbee's early 
experiments, or of any of the tentative ones of later 
scientists. But this, on the whole, may have been 
rather advantageous than otherwise, as, being ignorant, 

[238] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

he was perhaps in a more receptive state of mind than 
if hampered by false or prejudicial conceptions. Be 
this as it may, he began experimenting with mercury 
confined in a glass tube from which the air had been 
exhausted, the mercury being vaporized either by 
heating, or by a current of electricity. No results of any 
importance came of his numerous experiments for a 
time, but at last he made the all-important discovery 
that once the high resistance of the cold mercury was 
overcome, a comparatively weak current would then 
be conducted, producing a brilliant Hght from the glow 
of the mercury vapor. Here, then, was the secret of the 
use of mercury vapor for lighting — a powerful current 
of electricity for a fraction of a second passed through 
the vapor to overcome the initial resistance, and then 
the passage of an ordinary current to produce the light. 

In practice this apparent difficulty in overcoming the 
initial resistance with a strong current is easily over- 
come by the use of a "boosting coil," which supplies the 
strong current for an instant, and is then shut off auto- 
matically, the ordinary current continuing for producing 
the light. The mechanism is hardly more complex than 
that of the ordinary incandescent light, but the current of 
ordinary strength produces an illumination about eight 
times as intense as the ordinary incandescent bulb of 
equal candle-power. 

The form of lamp used is that of a long, horizontal 
tube suspended overhead in the room, a briUiant light 
being diffused, which, lacking the red rays of ordinary 
lights, gives a bluish-green tone to objects, and a par- 
ticularly ghastly and unpleasant appearance to faces and 

[239] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

hands, as referred to a moment ago. In many ways 
this feature of the Hght is really a peculiarity rather than 
a defect, and for practical purposes in work requiring 
continued eye-strain the absence of the red rays is' 
frequently advantageous. In such close work as 
that of pen-drawing, for example, some artists find it ad- 
vantageous to use globes filled with water tinted a faint 
green color, placed between the lamps and their paper, 
the effect produced being somewhat the same as that 
of the mercury- vapor Hght. For such work the absence 
of the red rays of the Hewitt Hght would not be con- 
sidered a defect; and in workshops and offices where 
Mr. Hewitt's lamps are used the workmen have become 
enthusiastic over them. 

On the other hand, the fact that the color-values of 
objects are so completely changed makes this light 
objectionable for ordinary use; so much so, in fact, that 
the inventor was led to take up the problem of intro- 
ducing red rays in some manner so as to produce a pure 
white Hght. He has partly accompHshed this by means 
of pink cloth colored with rhodium thrown around 
the glass; but this causes a distinct loss of brilHancy. 

The most natural method of introducing the red 
rays, it would seem, would be to use globes of red 
glass; but a moment's reflection wiU show that this 
would not solve the difficulty. Red glass does not 
change light waves, but simply suppresses all but the 
red rays ; and since there are no red rays in the mercury- 
vapor light the result of the red globe would be to sup- 
press all the light. Obviously, therefore, this apparently 
simple method does not solve the difficulty; but those 

[240] 



THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

familiar with Mr. Hewitt's work will not be surprised 
any day to hear that he has finally overcome all obstacles, 
and produced a perfectly white light. In the meantime 
the relatively expensive arc light and the incandescent 
bulb with its filament of carbon or metal hold unchal- 
lenged supremacy in the commercial field. 

VOL. VI. — 16 



[241] 



XII 

THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

AGES before the dawn of civilization, primitive 
man had learned to extract certain ores and 
metals from the earth by subterranean min- 
ing. Such nations as the Egyptians, for example, un- 
derstood mining in most of its phases, and v^orked 
their mines in practically the same manner as all suc- 
ceeding nations before the time of the introduction 
of the steam engine. The early Britons were good 
miners and the products of their mines were carried 
to the Orient by the Phoenicians many centuries before 
the Christian era. The Romans were, of course, 
great miners, and remains of the Roman mines are 
still in existence, particularly good examples being 
found in Spain. 

Even the aborigines of North America possessed 
some knowledge of mining, as attested by the ancient 
copper mines in the Lake Superior region, although 
by the time of the discovery of America, and prob- 
ably many centuries before, the interloping races of 
Indians who had driven out or exterminated the Lake 
Superior copper mines had forgotten the art of mining, 
if indeed they had ever learned it. But the fact that 
their predecessors had worked the copper mines is 
shown by the number of stone mining implements 
found in the ancient excavations about Lake Superior, 

[ 242 ] 



THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

these implements being found literally by cart loads in 
some places. 

The great progress in mining methods, however, 
as in the case of most other mechanical arts, began 
with the introduction of steam as a means of utiliz- 
ing energy; and another revolution is in rapid progress 
owing to the perfection of electrical apparatus for 
furnishing power, heat, and light. Methods of mining 
a hundred years ago were undoubtedly somewhat in 
advance of the methods used by the ancients; but the 
gap was not a wide one, and the progress made by 
decades after the introduction of steam has been 
infinitely greater than the progress made by centuries 
previous to that time. 

This progress, of course, appHes to all kinds of mines 
and all phases of mining; but steam and electricity 
are not alone responsible for the great nineteenth- 
century progress. Geology, an unknown science a 
century ago, has played a most active and important 
part; and chemistry, whose birth as a science dates 
from the opening years of the nineteenth century, is 
responsible for many of the great advances. 

Obviously a very important feature of any mine 
must be its location, and the determination of this 
must always constitute the principal hazard in prac- 
tical mining. Prospecting, or exploring for suitable 
mining sites, has been an important occupation for 
many years, and has in fact become a scientific one 
recently. Formerly mines were frequently stumbled 
upon by accident, but such accidental discoveries are 
becoming less and less frequent. The prospector 

[243] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

now draws largely upon the knowledge of the scien- 
tist to aid him in his search. Geology, for example, 
assists him in determining the region in which his 
mines may be found, if it cannot actually point out the 
location for sinking his shaft; and at least a rough 
knowledge of botany and chemistry is an invaluable 
aid to him. It is obvious that it would be useless to 
prospect for coal in a region where no strata of rocks 
formed during the Carboniferous or coal-forming age 
are to be found within a workable distance below the 
surface of the earth. The prospector must, therefore, 
direct his efforts within ''geological confines" if he 
would hope to be successful, and in this he is now 
greatly aided by the geological surveys which have 
been made of almost every region in the United States 
and Europe. 

An example of what science has done in this direc- 
tion was shown a few years ago in a western American 
town during one of the ''oil booms" that excited so 
many communities at that time. In the neighborhood 
of this town evidences of oil had been found from time 
to time — some of them under pecuHar and suspicious 
circumstances, to be sure — and the members of the 
community were in an intense state of excitement over 
the possibility of oil being found on their lands. 
Prices of land jumped to fabulous figures, and the 
few land-owners that could be induced to part with 
their farms became opulent by the transactions. An 
"oil expert" appeared upon the scene about this time 
— just "happening to drop in" — who declared, after 
an examination, that the entire region abounded in 

[244] 



THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

oil. He backed up his assertion by offering to stake 
his experience against the capital of a company which 
was formed at his suggestion. Before any wells were 
actually started, however, a prudent member of the 
company consulted the State geologist on the subject, 
receiving the assurance that no oil would be found 
in the neighborhood. Strangely enough the word of 
the man of science triumphed over that of the "oil 
expert," and although some tentative borings were 
made on a minor scale, no great amount of money 
was sunk. It developed afterwards that the evidences 
of oil found from time to time had been the secret 
\vv.rk of the ^'expert." 

In general, prospecting for oil differs pretty radically 
from prospecting for most other minerals. A very com- 
mon way of locating an ore-mine is by the nature of 
the out-crop, — that is, the broken edges of strata of 
rocks protruding from hillsides, or tilted at an angle 
on level areas. If the ore-bearing vein is harder than 
the surrounding strata it will be found as a jutting 
edge, protruding beyond the surface of the other lay- 
ers of rocks which, being softer, are more easily worn 
away. On the other hand, if this stratum is soft or 
decomposable it will show as a depression, or "sag" 
as it is called. Of course such protrusions and de- 
pressions may only be seen and examined where the 
rocks themselves are exposed; vegetation, drift, and 
snow preventing such observations. But the vegeta- 
tion may in itself serve as a guide to the experienced 
prospector in determining the location of a mine, 
pecuhar mineral conditions being conducive to the 

[ 245 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

growth of certain forms of vegetation, or to the arrange- 
ment of such growth. Alterations in the color of the 
rocks on a hillside are also important guides, as such 
discolorations frequently indicate that oxidizable min- 
erals are located above. 

In hilly or moimtainous regions, where the under- 
lying rocks are covered with earth, portions of these 
surfaces are sometimes uncovered by the method 
known as ^^ booming." In using this method the 
prospector selects a convenient depression near the 
top of a hill and builds a temporary dam across 
the point corresponding to the lowest outlet. When 
snow and rain have turned the basin so formed into 
a lake, the dam is burst and the water rushing down 
the hillside cuts away the overlying dirt, exposing 
the rocks beneath. This method is effective and in- 
expensive. 

The beds of streams, particularly those in hilly and 
mountainous regions, are fertile fields for prospecting, 
particularly for precious metals. Stones and pebbles 
found in the bed are likely to reveal the ore-founda- 
tions along the course of the stream, and the shape 
of these pebbles helps in determining the approximate 
location of such foundations. An ore-bearing pebble, 
well worn and rounded, has probably traveled some 
little distance from its original source, being rounded 
and worn in its passage down the stream. On the 
other hand, if it is still angular it has come a much 
shorter distance, and the prospector will be guided 
accordingly in his search for the ore- vein. 

But prospecting is not hmited to these simple sur- 
[246] 



THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

face methods. In enterprises undertaken on a large 
scale, borings are frequently made in regions where 
there are perhaps no specific surface indications. In 
such regions a shaft may be sunk or a tunnel may be 
dug, and the condition of the underlying strata thus 
definitely determined. This last is, of course, a most 
expensive method, the simpler and more usual way 
being that of making borings to certain depths. The 
difficulty with such borings is that rich veins may be 
passed by the borer without detection ; or, on the other 
hand, a small vein happening to lie in the same plane 
as the drill may give a wrong impression as to the ex- 
tent of the vein. 

One of the most satisfactory ways of making bor- 
ings is by means of the diamond drill. This drill 
is made in the form of a long metal tube, the lower 
edge of w^hich is made into a cutting implement by 
black diamonds fixed in the edge of the metal. By 
rotating this tube a ring is cut through the layers of 
rock, the solid cylinder or core of rock remaining in 
the hollow centre of the drill. This can be removed 
from time to time, the nature and thickness of the 
geological formation through which the drill is passing 
being thus definitely determined. 

CONDITIONS TO BE CONSIDERED IN MINING 

Three great problems always confront the mine 
operator — fight, power, and ventilation. Of these 
ventilation is the most important from the workman^s 
standpoint, although the problem of Hght is scarcely 

[247] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

less so. Obviously a cavity of the earth where hundreds 
of men are constantly consuming the atmosphere and 
vitiating it, and where thousands of lights are burning, 
would become like the black hole of Calcutta in a few 
minutes if some means were not adopted to relieve 
this condition. But besides this vitiation of the at- 
mosphere caused by the respiration of the men and the 
burning of lamps there are likely to be accumulations 
of poisonous gases in mines, that are even more dan- 
gerous. Of the two classes of dangerous gases — 
those that asphyxiate and those that explode or bum — 
it may be said in a general way that the suffocating 
or poisonous gases, such as carbonic acid, which is 
known as black damp, or choke damp, are more likely 
to occur in ore mines, while the explosive gases are 
found more frequently in coal mines. 

Choke damp, which is a gas considerably heavier 
than the atmosphere, is usually found near the bottom 
of mines, running along declines and falling into holes 
in much the same manner as a liquid. It kills by suffo- 
cation, and, as it will not support combustion, it may 
be detected by lowering a lighted candle into a sus- 
pected cavity, the light being extinguished at once if 
the gas is present. To rid the cavity of it, forced 
ventilation is used where possible, the gas being scat- 
tered by draughts of fresh air. If this is impracticable, 
and the cavity small, the choke damp may be dipped 
out with buckets. 

But the problem of the mining engineer is not so 
much to rid cavities of gas as to prevent its accumula- 
tion. In modem mining, with proper ventilation and 

[248] 












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M. NS2835. 




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.Mfl^^H^^^^^^I^^^^^IlK'^'^ 9 




IB 


mf^''^^^ 





A FLINT-AND-STEEL OUTFIT, AND A MINER'S STEEL MILL 

The upper picture shows a flint-and-steel outfit, the implements for lighting a fire before 
the days of matches. The lower picture shows a miner's steel mill, which was used for giving 
light in mines before the day of the safety-lamp. It consists of a steel disk which is rotated 
rapidly against-a piece of flint, producing a stream of sparks. It was thought that such sparks 
would not ignite fire-damp — a belief which is now known to be erroneous. 



THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

drainage, there is comparatively little danger of ex- 
tensive accumulation of this gas. 

The danger from this choke damp, therefore, is 
one that concerns the individual workman rather than 
large bodies of men or the structure of the mine itself. 
With fire damp, however, the case is different, as an ex- 
plosion of this gas may destroy the mine itself and all 
the workmen in it. It is, therefore, the most dreaded 
factor in mining, and is the one to which more atten- 
tion has been directed than to almost any other problem. 

This fire damp is a mixture of carbonic oxide and 
marsh gas which, being Hghter than air, tends to rise 
to the upper part of the mines. For this reason ex- 
plosions are more likely to occur near the openings 
of the mine, frequently entombing the workmen in a 
remote part of the mine even when not actually killing 
them by the explosion. As this gas is poisonous as 
well as explosive the miners who survive the explosion 
may succumb eventually to suffocation. 

Previous to the year 1816 no means had been devised 
for averting the explosions of fire damp except the 
uncertain one of watching the flame of the candle 
with which the miner was working. On coming in 
contact with air mildly contaminated with fire damp 
the candle flame takes on a blue tint and assumes a 
peculiarly elongated shape which may be instantly de- 
tected by a watchful workman. But miners were, and 
still are, a proverbially careless class of men even where 
a matter of life and death is concerned, and too fre- 
quently gave no heed to the warning flame. But in 181 6 
Sir Humphrey Davy invented his safety lamp, a device 

[249] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

that has been the means of saving thousands of lives, 
and which has not as yet been entirely supplanted by any 
modem invention. 

In making his numerous experiments, Davy had ob- 
served that iron- wire gauze is such a good conductor 
of heat that a flame enclosed in such gauze could not 
pass readily through meshes to ignite a gas on the out- 
side. He found by experiment that a considerable 
quantity of explosive gas might be brought into contact 
with the gauze surrounding a flame, and no explo- 
sion occur. At the same time this gas would give 
warning of its presence by changing the color of the 
flame. When a lamp was made with a surrounding 
gauze having seven hundred and eighty meshes to the 
square inch, it was found to give sufficient light and 
at the same time to be practically non-explosive in 
the presence of ordinary quantities of gas. 

One would suppose that such a Kfe-saving invention 
would have been eagerly adopted by the men whose 
lives it protected; but, as a matter of fact, owing to 
certain inconveniences of Davy's lamps, many miners 
refused to use them until forced to do so by the mine- 
owners. One of these disadvantages was that this 
safety lamp gave a poor light overhead. This is par- 
ticularly annoying to the miner, who wishes always 
to watch the condition of the ceiling under which he 
is working. When not under constant observation, 
therefore, a miner would frequently remove the gauze 
of the lamp and work by the open flame, regardless 
of consequences. Or again, he would sometimes for- 
getfully use the flame for lighting his pipe. To over- 

[250] 



THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

come the possibility of such forgetfukiess or wilful dis- 
obedience, it was found necessary to equip safety lamps 
with locking devices, so that the miner had no means of 
access to the open flame of his lamp once it had been 
lighted. 

Since the time of the first Davy safety lamp there 
have been numerous improvements in mechani- 
cal details, although the general principle remains 
unchanged. One of these improvements is a device 
whereby the lamp, when accidentally extinguished, 
may be relighted without opening it, and without the 
use of matches. This is done by means of little strips 
of paper containing patches of a fulminating substance 
which is ignited by friction, working on the same prin- 
ciple as the paper percussion caps used on toy pistols. 

But even the improved safety lamp seems likely to 
disappear from mines within the next few years, now 
that electricity has come into such general use. As 
yet, however, no satisfactory portable electric lamp 
or lantern has been perfected, such lamps being as a 
rule too heavy, expensive, and unreliable. Even if 
these defects were remedied, the advantage would still 
lie with the Davy lamp, since the electric lamp, being 
enclosed, cannot be used for the detection of fire damp. 
But this advantage of the safety lamp is becoming less 
important, since well-regulated mines are now more 
thoroughly ventilated, and the danger from fire damp 
correspondingly lessened. 

In some Continental mines the experiment has been 
tried of constantly consuming the fire damp, before 
it has had time to accumulate in explosive quantities, 

[251] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

by means of numerous open lights kept constantly 
burning. This method is effective, but since the numer- 
ous lights consume the precious oxygen of the air as 
well as the damp, the method has never become pop- 
ular. Obviously, then, the question of mine ventilation 
is closely associated with that of lighting. 

Probably the simplest method of properly venti- 
lating a mine is that of having two openings at the 
surface, one on a much higher level than the other 
if the mine is on a hillside, the lower one corresponding 
to the lowest portion of the mine where possible. By 
such an arrangement natural currents will be estab- 
lished, and may be controlled and distributed through 
the mine by doors or permanent partitions, or aided 
by fans. But of course only a comparatively small 
number of mines are so situated that this system can 
be used. 

It is possible, of course, to ventilate a mine from a 
single shaft or opening by use of double sets of pipes, 
one for admitting air and the other for expelling it; 
but this system is obviously not an ideal one, and is 
prohibited by law in most mining districts. Such 
laws usually stipulate that there must be at least two 
openings situated at some distance from each other. 

The older method of creating air currents was by 
means of furnaces, but this method, while very effective, 
is expensive and dangerous. In using this system a 
furnace is built near the outlet of the air shaft, the com- 
bustion of the fuel creating the necessary draught. 
But in the nature of things this furnace is a constant 
menace to the mine, besides being an extremely waste- 

[252] 



THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

ful expenditure of energy. The modern method of 
ventilating is by means of rotary fans, the electric fan 
having practically solved the problem. The air cur- 
rents established by such fans are controlled either by 
the doors in the passages, or by means of auxiliary fans. 
In addition, jets of compressed air are sometimes used, 
and have become very popular. 

Another important problem that constantly confronts 
the mining engineer is that of drainage. Mines are, 
of course, great reservoirs for the accumulation of 
water, which must be drained or pumped out continu- 
ally; and as the shafts are sunk deeper and deeper it 
becomes increasingly difficult to raise the water to the 
surface. Special means and machinery are employed 
for this purpose which will be considered more in detail 
in a moment. 



ELECTRIC MACHINERY IN MINING 

Electricity is, of course, the great revolutionary fac- 
tor in modern mining. There is scarcely a department 
of mining in which electric power has not wrought 
revolutionary changes in recent years; and the sub- 
ject has become so important and so thoroughly spe- 
cialized as to "create a literature and a technology of 
its own." From the electric drill, working hundreds of 
feet below the surface of the earth, to the delicate test- 
ing-instruments in the laboratory of the assaying offices, 
the effect of this electrical revolution is being felt 
progressively more and more every year. 

Moreover, electricity, on account of its transmuta- 
[253] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

bility, has made accessible many important mining 
sites hitherto unworkable. Rich mines are now in oper- 
ation on an economical basis which, thirty years ago, 
were worthless on account of their isolation . When such 
mines were situated in mountainous regions where 
there was no coal supply at hand for creating steam 
power, and where the only available water power was 
perhaps several miles away, operations on a paying 
basis were out of the question before the era of electric 
power. 

At present, however, the question of distance of the 
seat of power has been practically eliminated by the 
possibilities of electric conduction. A stream, situated 
miles away, when harnessed to a turbine and electric 
motors may afford a source of power more economical 
than could be furnished a few years ago by a power 
plant supplied with fuel at the very door of the mine. 
We need not enter into the details of this transmission 
of power, however, since the subject has been discussed 
in a general way in another place. Our subject here 
is rather to deal with the application of electricity to 
certain mining implements of special importance. 

One of the most useful acquisitions to the equipment 
of the modem miner is a portable mechanical drill, 
which makes it possible for him to dispense with the 
time-honored pick, hammer, and hand-drill. But it 
is only recently that inventors have been able to pro- 
duce this implement. The great difficulty has lain in 
the fact that a reciprocating motion, which is essential 
for certain kinds of drilling, is not readily secured with 
electric power. The use of steam or compressed air 

[254J 



THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

for operating such reciprocating drills presents no 
mechanical difficulties, and the fact that power of this 
kind can be transmitted long distances by the use of 
flexible tubes made such drills popular for several 
years. But the cost of operating such drills is so 
much greater than that of the new electric drills that they 
are rapidly being replaced in mining work. 

The first attempts to produce an electric drill with 
a reciprocating motion were so unsuccessful that in- 
ventors turned their attention to perfecting some ro- 
tary device. This proved more successful, and rotary 
drills, operating long augers and acting like ordinary 
wood-boring machines, are now used extensively 
for certain kinds of drilling. The more recent forms 
perform the same amount of work as the air drill, 
with a consumption of about one-tenth the power. 
Moreover, none of the energy is lost at high altitudes 
as in the case of air drills, and they are not affected by 
low temperatures which sometimes render the air 
drill inoperable. On the other hand, the air drill is 
a hardy implement, capable of withstanding very rough 
usage, whereas the electric drill is probably the more 
economical, as well as the more convenient drill of 
the two. 

In certain kinds of mining, such as in the potash 
mines of Europe and the coal mines of America, these 
electric drills operating their long augers have been 
found particularly useful. The ordinary type of drill 
is so arranged that it can be operated at any angle, 
vertically or horizontally. The lighter forms are 
mounted on upright stands, with screws at the ends 

[255] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

for fastening to the floor and roof, although the heavier 
types are sometimes mounted on trucks. The motor, 
which is not much larger or heavier than an ordinary 
fan motor, is fastened to the upright and is from four 
to six horse-power. This connects with a flexible 
wire which transmits the power from the generating 
station, frequently several miles away. The auger, 
which is about the largest part of the machine and en- 
tirely out of proportion to the little motor that drives 
it, is simply a long bar of steel, twisted spirally at the 
cutting-end Hke an ordinary wood auger. 

From the workman's standpoint these rotary drills 
are infinitely superior to reciprocating or percussion 
drills, where the constant jarring of the machine, be- 
sides being extremely tiresome, sometimes produces 
the serious disease known as neuritis. Various means 
have been attempted to prevent this, such as by over- 
coming the jar in a measure by flexible levers which 
do not transmit the vibrations to the hands and arms; 
but such attempts are only partially successful, and 
a certain amount of jarring cannot be avoided. In 
the rotary electric drills there is none of this, the work- 
men simply controlling the drill and the motor with 
levers, and receiving at most only a slight jar from the 
vibrations of the auger. 

TRACTION IN MINING 

In recent years electric traction engines for use in 
mines have been rapidly replacing horse- and mule- 
power, and have become important economic factors 

[256] 



THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

in mining operations. The pioneer of this type of 
locomotive seems to have been one built by Mr. W. M. 
Schlessinger for one of the collieries of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad about 1882, and which has remained in active 
use ever since. The total v^eight of this locomotive 
was five tons and it was equipped with thirty-two 
horse-power electric motors. The current was supplied 
through a trolley pole which took the current from a 
T-shaped rail placed above and at one side of the track. 
The train hauled by this locomotive consisted of fifteen 
cars, carrying from two to three tons of coal each. 

Following this first mining-locomotive a great num- 
ber were quickly produced. In Pennsylvania alone 
something like four hundred are now in use, and in 
Illinois two million tons of coal were hauled in this 
manner in twelve mines in 1 901. It was estimated 
at the beginning of the present century that some 3,000 
electric locomotives specially built for mining were in 
use in the United States alone. 

The earlier types of mining-locomotives were much 
higher and bulkier than those of more recent con- 
struction, ther motors being moimted above the trucks 
and geared downward. Very soon, however, the 
"turtle-back" or "terrapin-back" type was developed, 
with the motors brought close to the ground, so that 
even quite a heavy locomotive might not be much higher 
than the diameter of its driving-wheels. When these 
queer-looking machines were boxed in so that even the 
wheels were covered, they lost all resemblance to loco- 
motives or vehicles of any kind, appearing Hke low, 
rectangular metal boxes placed upon the car tracks, 

VOL. VI. — 17 [257] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

that glided along the rails in some mysterious manner. ' 
The presence of the trolley pole helped to dispel this 
illusion, but in some instances this is wanting, the power 1 1 
being taken from a third rail. | 

With these locomotives, some of them not more than 
two and a half feet high, it was possible to haul trains 
even in very low and narrow passages — much lower, 
in fact, than could be entered by the little mules used 
in former years. This in itself was revolutionary in 1 
its effects, asmany thin veins were thus made workable. " 

This type of low locomotive is the one that has come 
into general use throughout the world. Such loco- 
motives range in size from two to twenty tons, with 
wheel gauges from a foot and a half wide to the stand- 
ard railway gauge of four feet, eight and a half inches. 
Locomotives weighing more than twenty tons are 
not in general use on account of the small size of the 
mine entrances. 

In the ordinary types the motorman sits in front, 
controlling the locomotive with levers and mechanical 
brakes placed within easy reach, but sunk as low as 
possible. As a rule, the motors are geared to the truck | 
axles, either inside or outside the locomotive frame. 
An overhead copper wire supplies the current by con- 
tact with a grooved trolley wheel mounted on the end 
of the regulation trolley pole. An electric headlight 
is used, and the ordinary speed attained by the com- 
pact motors is from six to ten miles an hour. 

The amount of work that can be performed by one 
of these little, flat, box-like locomotives is entirely out 
of proportion to its size. A lo-ton locomotive in a i 

[258] i 




W M^ 



THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

Pennsylvania mine hauled about 150,000 tons of coal 
in a year at a cost of less than one-tenth of a cent per 
ton for repairs. The usual train was made up of 
thirty-five cars, each loaded with about 3,700 pounds 
of coal, which was hauled up a three-per-cent grade. 
The cost of such haulage was only about 2.76 cents 
per ton, as against 7.15 cents when hauled by mule- 
power. These figures may be considered represent- 
ative, as other mines show similar results. 

A particular advantage has been gained by the use 
of electric locomotives over older methods in the proc- 
ess of ^^ gathering" the cars. In many coal mines, 
even when the main hauling is done by electricity, 
the gathering or collecting of cars from the working 
faces of the rooms was formerly done either by mule- 
power or by hand. In some low- veined mines, hand 
power alone was used, on account of the low roof. 

In such places, low, compressed-air locomotives were 
sometimes used; but these were very expensive. 
These have now been very generally replaced by 
"turtle-back" electric locomotives, operated at a dis- 
tance from the main trolley wire by means of long, 
flexible cables, so geared that they can be paid out 
or coiled as desired. 

On the main line these locomotives take the current 
from the trolley wire by means of the trolley pole, but 
when the place for gathering is reached, the connection 
is made by means of the flexible cable, and the trolley 
pole fastened down so as not to be in the way. This 
allows the locomotive to push the Httle cars into the 
rooms far removed from the main line, with passages 

[259] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

too low and narrow to allow the use of the trolley pole. 
By the time the last cars have been delivered the first 
cars of the train have been filled, and the process of 
gathering may be begun at once, and the loaded train 
made up for the return trip. With such a locomotive 
two men can distribute and gather up from one hundred 
to one hundred and twenty cars in an ordinary eight- 
hour working-day, hauling from three hundred to three 
hundred and fifty tons of coal. 

In certain regions, a system of third-rail current- 
supply is used, this rail being also a tooth rail with which 
a cog on the locomotive works frictionally. For climb- 
ing steep grades this system of cogged rails has many 
advantages over other systems. 

Another type of electric locomotive used in some 
mines is a self-propelling or automobile one equipped 
with storage batteries. Such locomotives do away 
with the inconvenience and dangers of contact rails 
or trolley wires, but are heavy and expensive. A com- 
promise locomotive, particularly useful for gathering, is 
one equipped with both trolley pole and storage bat- 
teries. This locomotive is so made that the storage 
batteries are charged while it is running with the trol- 
ley connection, so that no time is lost in the charging 
process. Such locomotives have been found very sat- 
isfactory for many purposes, and but for the imper- 
fections common to all storage batteries would be 
ideal in many ways. They can be worked over any 
improvised track, regardless of distance, which is an 
advantage over the flexible-cable system where dis- 
tances are limited by the length of cable; and the 

[260] 



THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

first cost of the battery is no more than the outlay on 
trolley wires and supports. It is also claimed that the 
cost of maintenance is relatively low, but it is doubtful 
if it equals the trolley or third- rail systems in this respect. 

Closely allied to the systems of traction by electric 
locomotives, is the modem electric telpherage system. 
Until quite recently the haulage of ores and other raw 
materials used in mining, when done aerially, has been 
by means of travelling rope or cable. When distances 
to be travelled in this manner are short, such as across 
streams or valleys, where no supports are used, the 
term '^ cable way" is generally applied; but where the 
distance is so long that supports are necessary, the term 
"tramway cable" is used. It is to these longer systems 
that electric telpherage is particularly appKcable. 

The advantage of such an electric system over the 
older method is the same as the advantages of the trol- 
ley road over the cable, all ropes and cables being 
stationary, the electric motor, or "telpher," travelling 
along on one cable and taking its current by means of 
a trolley pole from a wire above. For heavier work 
metal rails supported between posts are employed in 
place of a flexible cable, and over such systems loads 
of several tons can be hauled. 

Such an electric telpher system is used in one of the 
Cuban limestone quarries, the telpher and cars travel- 
ling a long distance upon cables, except at some of the 
curves, where solid rails are substituted, hauling a 
load of a thousand pounds at a speed of from twelve 
to fifteen miles an hour. The current comes from a 
distant source, and the telpher is so arranged that it 

[261] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

travels automatically when the current is turned on, 
stopping when the current is cut off. This is quite a 
common arrangement for smaller telphers, but in the 
larger ones a man travels with the telpher and load, 
controlling the train just as in the case of the ordinary 
trolley system. 

The various processes of hoisting in mines by elec- 
tricity is closely akin to that of traction, since, after all, 
*^an elevator is virtually a railway with a loo-per-cent 
grade." As such work is done spasmodically, long 
periods of rest intervening between actual periods of 
work, a great deal of energy is wasted by steam hoisting 
engines, where a certain pressure of steam in the boiler 
must be maintained at all times. For this reason 
electrical energy for hoisting has come rapidly into 
popularity in recent years. ^'The throttling of steam 
to control speed," said Mr. F. O. Blackwell in address- 
ing the American Institute of Mining Engineers, ^Hhe 
necessity for reversing the engine, the variation in steam 
pressure, the absence of condensing apparatus, the 
cooling and large clearance of cylinders, and the con- 
densation and leakage of steam pipes when doing no 
work, are all against the steam hoisting engine. One 
of the largest hoisting engines in the world was recently 
tested and found to take sixty pounds of steam per 
indicated horse- power per hour. The electric motor, 
on the other hand, is ideal for intermittent work. It 
wastes absolutely no energy when at rest, there being 
no leakage or condensation. Its efficiency is high, 
from one-quarter load to twice full load." 

There seems to be practically no difference as far as 
[262] 



THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

the element of danger is concerned between steam and 
electric hoists. The difference is largely one of econ- 
omy. The importance of this is shown by the recent 
comparisons in a gold mine which has replaced its 
steam apparatus by electricity. In this mine the hoist 
moves through the shaft at a rate of over twelve hundred 
feet per minute, elevating five hundred tons of ore 
daily on double-decked cages. It is estimated that 
this system shows an efficiency of 75 per cent, taking 
into account losses of all kinds, with a resulting re- 
duction of cost of from seven to twenty dollars per 
horse-power per month. 

Results comparing very favorably with these have 
been obtained also in some of the mines in Germany 
and Bohemia, where electricity has been introduced ex- 
tensively in mining. In one of these mines the daily 
hoisting capacity is twenty-seven hundred tons from 
a depth of over sixteen hundred feet, at a speed of over 
fifty- two feet per second. In the Comstock mine, at 
Virginia City, Nev., electric hoists are used which 
obtain their power from a plant situated on the Tru- 
chee River thirty-two miles away. 

ELECTRIC MINING PUMPS 

In pumping, which is always one of the important 
items in mining, the use of electric power has been found 
quite as advantageous as in the other fields of its 
application. No special features are embodied in 
most of the types of mining pumps over the rotary 
and reciprocating types used for ordinary purposes, 

[263] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

except perhaps a type of pump known as the sinking 
pump. This is a movable pump that can be easily 
lowered from one place to another, and has proved to 
be a great time- saver over steam or air pumps used 
for similar purposes. 

For some time the question of the durability of elec- 
tric pumps was in dispute, but developments in quite 
recent years seem to prove that, in some instances at 
least, such pumps are practically indestructible. 

"The question of what would happen to an electric 
motor in a mine if pumps and motors get flooded has 
often come up. From tests made recently at the Uni- 
versity of Liege, Belgium, it appears that a suitably 
designed polyphase alternating- current motor of a type 
largely used on the continent of Europe was completely 
submerged in water. It was run for a quarter of an 
hour; it was then stopped and allowed to remain sub- 
merged, under official seal, for twenty-four hours, at 
the end of which time it was again run for a few min- 
utes. It was next removed from the water, again put 
under seal, and left to dry for twenty-four hours. 
The insulation was then tested, and the motor was 
found to be in perfect order. It would be hard to 
imagine a test more severe than this. 

"As bearing upon this question it is interesting to 
note that among the pumps in use aroimd Johannes- 
burg, South Africa, at the beginning of the Anglo-Boer 
War, there were twelve of a well-known American 
make, each of which was operated by a 50-horse- 
power induction motor of American construction with 
three 15-kilowatt transformers. When the mines were 

[264] 



THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

shut down, upon the breaking out of the war, the water 
rose so rapidly that it was impossible to remove the 
pumps, motors, transformers, etc., and consequently 
they remained imder 500 to 1,000 feet of water. 
Two and a half years later, when peace was declared 
in South Africa, the water in the shaft was pumped out 
and the electrical apparatus was removed to the sur- 
face . Three of the motors were stripped and completely 
rewound, but to the general surprise of the experts 
the condition of the insulation indicated that the re- 
winding might not be absolutely necessary. Accord- 
ingly the other nine motors were thoroughly dried in 
an oven and then soaked in oil. After this treatment 
they were rigidly tested, proved to be all right, and were 
at once restored to regular service in the mine. The 
transformers were treated in the same manner as the 
motors, with equally gratifying results. 

"An interesting illustration of the flexibility and 
adaptability of electric motors for pumping purposes 
is furnished by the Gneisenau mine, near Dortmund, 
Germany, where a very large electric mining plant 
was installed in 1903. In this instance the pump is 
located more than 1,200 feet below the surface, and the 
difficulties of installing the apparatus were so great, 
on account of the small cross section of the shaft, that 
it was necessary to build up the motor in the pumping 
chamber, the material being transported through the 
wet shaft and the winding of the coils being performed 
in situ. 

"An interesting use of the electric pump associated 
with the telephone in connection with mining is noted 

[265] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

by Mr. W. B. Clarke. In one coal mine, where an 
electric pump is located in a worked-out portion of 
the mine, the circuits are so arranged that the pump 
is started from the power house, some distance away. 
Near the pump is placed a telephone transmitter con- 
nected to a receiver in the power house. To start the 
motors, or to ascertain whether the pumps are working 
properly, the engineer merely listens at the telephone 
receiver, without leaving his post." 

ELECTRICITY IN COAL MINING 

In coal mining the effect of the use of electrical 
machinery has been revolutionary in recent years, par- 
ticularly in the development of electric coal cutters. 
The old method of picking out coal by hand, where 
the miner labored with the heavy pick, working in all 
manner of cramped and dangerous positions, was sup- 
planted a few years ago by the ^^ puncher" machine, 
worked by steam or compressed air. With these ma- 
chines the coal was picked out just as in the case of 
the hand method, except that the energy was derived 
from some power other than muscular. So that while 
these machines worked more rapidly than the hand 
picks, they utilized the same general principle in apply- 
ing their energy. 

Within recent years, however, various coal-cutting 
machines have been devised, with which the coal was 
actually cut, or sawed out, these machines being pecu- 
liarly well adapted to using the electric current. 
The most practical and popular form of machine is 

[266] 



THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

one in which the sawing is done by an endless chain, 
the Knks of which are provided with a cutting blade. 
These have been very generally replacing the com^ 
pressed-air or pick type of machine, and their popu^ 
larity accounts largely for the enormous increase in 
the use of coal- mining machinery during the past 
decade. Thus in 1898 there were 2,622 coal- mining 
machines in use in the United States. Four years 
later this number had more than doubled, the increase 
being due largely to the adoption of chain machines. 

Like electric locomotives, and for similar reasons, the 
coal-cutting machines are low, broad, flat machines, 
from eighteen to twenty-eight inches high. They 
rest upon a flat shoeboard that can be moved easily 
along the face of the coal. An ordinary machine 
weighs in the neighborhood of a ton, and requires 
two men to operate. The apparatus is described 
briefly as follows: 

^'On an outside frame, consisting of two steel channel 
bars and two angle irons riveted to steel cross ties, 
rests a sliding frame consisting of a heavy channel 
or centre rail, to which is bolted the cutter head. The 
cutter head is made entirely of two milled steel plates, 
which bolt together, forming the front guide for the 
cutter chain. This chain, which is made of solid cast 
steel links connected by drop forge straps, is carried 
around idlers or sprockets placed at each end of the 
cutter head and along the chain guides at the side to 
the rear of the machine, where it engages with and re- 
ceives its power from a third sprocket, under the 
motor. The electric motor, which is of ironclad 

[267] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

multipolar type, rests upon a steel carriage, which forms 
the bearing for the main shaft ... A reversing switch 
is provided, so that the truck can travel in either di- 
rection, and when the machine has reached its stopping 
point, either forward or backward, it is checked by an 
automatic cut-off. The return travel is made in about 
one-fourth of the time required to make the cut." 

In veins of coal of a thickness from twenty-eight to 
thirty inches, such a machine will cut about one him- 
dred tons of coal in a day. The cost of production 
with such machines has been estimated at about 
sixty-three cents a ton, as against ninety cents as the 
cost of pick mining in rooms, — a saving of about 
twenty-seven cents a ton. Since it is estimated that 
for a cost of $10,000 an electrical equipment can 
be installed capable of working four such machines 
besides affording power for lighting, pumping, venti- 
lation of the mine, etc., thus saving something like 
$100 a day for the operator, the great popularity of these 
machines is readily understood. 

After such a machine has been placed in position, 
a cut some four feet wide, four or five inches high, and 
six feet deep can be made in five minutes, with the ex- 
penditure of very little energy on the part of the work- 
men. One of the largest cuttings ever recorded by 
one of these machines is 1,700 square feet in nine and 
one-half hours, although this may have been exceeded 
and not recorded. 

Among the several advantages claimed for the chain 
machine over the older pick machines is the small 
amount of slack coal produced, and the absence of 

[268] 



THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

the racking vibrations that exhaust the workmen, 
and, Hke the air drills, sometimes cause serious dis- 
eases. On the other hand the advocates of the pick 
machines point out that they can be used in mines too 
narrow for the introduction of chain machines. They 
show also that there is a constant element of danger 
from motor-driven machines in mines where the quan- 
tity of gas present makes it necessary to use safety 
lamps, on account of the sparking of the machines 
which may produce explosions. Both these claims 
are valid, but apply only to special cases, or to certain 
mines, and do not affect the general popularity of the 
chain machines. 

There are several different types of chain cutting ma- 
chines, such as "long- wall machines," and "shearing 
machines," but these need not be considered in detail 
here. The general principle upon which they work is 
the same as the ordinary chain machine, the difference 
being in the method of applying it for use in special 
situations. 



ELECTRIC LIGHTING OF MINES 

For many obvious reasons the ideal light for mining 
purposes is one in which the danger from the open 
flame is avoided, particularly in well- ventilated mines, 
or mines under careful supervision, where the danger 
from inflammable gases is slight. The incandescent 
electric Hght, therefore, has become practically indis- 
pensable in modem mining operations. For certain 
purposes and in certain locations where an intense 

[269] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

light is desirable and where there is no danger from 
combustible gases, arc lights are used to a limited ex- 
tent. But there is constant danger from the open 
flame in using such lights, and also from the connecting 
wires leading to them. Furthermore, such intense 
light is not usually necessary in the narrow passages 
of the mine. 

To be sure, there is a certain element of danger even 
with incandescent lights on account of the possibility 
of breakage of the globes, and of short-circuiting where 
improper wiring has been done. To overcome as 
much as possible the dangers from these sources, spe- 
cial precautions are taken in wiring mines, and special 
bulbs are used. In general the incandescent lamps 
as used in mining are made of stout round bulbs of 
thick glass which are not likely to crack from the effects 
of water dripping upon them while heated. As a 
further protection it is customary to enclose the bulbs 
in wire cages. It is also customary to use low-current 
lamps with a rather high voltage, although this must 
be limited, as excessive voltage may in itself become 
a source of danger. 



[270] 



XIII 
THE AGE OF STEEL 

THE iron industry has of late years become 
more and more merged into the steel industry, 
as steel has been gradually replacing the parent 
metal in nearly every field of its former usefulness. 
Steel is so much superior to iron for almost every pur- 
pose and the process of making it has been so sim- 
plified by Bessemer' s discovery that it may justly be 
said that civilization has emerged from the Iron Age, 
and entered the Age of Steel. While iron is mined 
more extensively now than at any time in the history 
of the world, the ultimate object of most of this mining 
is to produce material for manufacturing steel. We 
still speak of boiler iron, railroad iron, iron ships, 
etc., but these names are reminiscent, for in the con- 
struction of modem boilers and modem ships, steel 
is used exclusively. In the past decade it is probable 
that no railroad rails even for the smallest and cheapest 
of tracks have been made of anything but steel. 

The last half of the nineteenth century has been one 
of triumph of steel manufacture and production in 
America, and at the present time the United States 
stands head and shoulders above any other nation 
in this industry. In the middle of the century both 

[271] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

Germany and England were greater producers than 
America; but by the close of the century the annual 
output in the United States was above fifteen million 
tons as against England's ten and Germany's seven; 
and since 1900 this lead has been greatly increased. 
The steel industry has become so great, in fact, that 
it is "a sort of barometer of trade and national progress." 
The great advances in the quantity of steel pro- 
duced have been made possible by corresponding ad- 
vances in methods of winning the iron ore from the earth. 
Mining machinery has been revolutionized at least 
twice during the last half century, first by improved 
machines driven by steam, and again by electricity 
and compressed air. Ore is still mined to a limited 
extent by men with picks and shovels, but these im- 
plements now play so insignificant a part in the process 
that they cannot be considered as important factors. 
Steam shovels, automatic loaders and unloaders, dyna- 
mite and blasting powder, have taken the place of 
brawn and muscle, which is now mostly expended in 
directing and guiding mining machinery rather than 
in actually handling the ore. 

THE LAKE SUPERIOR MINES 

At the present time the greatest iron-ore fields lie 
in the Lake Superior region, and it is in this region 
that the greatest progress in mining methods has been 
made in recent years. There are, of course, extensive 
mines in other sections of the United States, but at 
least three-quarters of all the iron produced in America 

[272] 



THE AGE OF STEEL 

comes from the Lake Superior mines, and the systems 
of mining pursued there may be considered as repre- 
sentative of the most advanced modern methods. 

Where the iron ore of these mines is found near the 
surface of the earth, the great system of '^open-pit'' 
mining is practised; but as only a relatively small 
portion of the ore is so situated, modifications of older 
mining methods are still employed. Of these the 
three most important are known as ^^ overhead scoop- 
ing," '^caving," and ^^ milling.'' 

In the overhead method a shaft is sunk into the 
earth to a depth of several hundred feet, according to 
the depth of the ore, this shaft being lined with timbers 
for support. From this shaft horizontal tunnels are 
made in all directions in the ore deposits, and through 
these tunnels the ore is conveyed to the shaft and thence 
to the surface. As the ore is removed and the earth 
thus honeycombed in all directions, supports of various 
kinds must be made to prevent caving. For this pur- 
pose columns of the ore itself may be left, or supports 
of masonry or wood or steel may be introduced. 
Under certain circumstances, however, these supports 
are not employed, the earth being allowed gradually 
to cave in at the surface as the ore is removed, this 
being the method of mining known as '^caving." 

Where the ore deposit occurs in a favorable hillside 
the ^'milling" system is frequently employed. In 
working this system a large horizontal tunnel, twenty 
or more feet in diameter, is dug into the hillside. Per- 
pendicular shafts are then sunk from the top of the 
hill, connected with openings leading directly into 
VOL. VI.— 18 [273] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

the top of the main horizontal shaft. By this arrange- 
ment the ore, when loosened in these perpendicular 
shafts, falls directly into the bins placed for its recep- 
tion about the openings, or into the rows of cars in 
waiting to receive it. In this method dynamite and 
powder take the place of hand labor, the main mass of 
ore being dislodged and thrown into the shaft by 
blasting, instead of by hand labor. 

But all these methods are overshadowed in mag- 
nitude by the great ^^open pit'' systems, where the ore 
is taken from the surface and handled entirely by ma- 
chinery, the only part played by the miner's pick being 
that of assisting in loosing certain fragments so that 
they may be more easily seized by the machines. 
Indeed, this system of mining partakes of the nature 
of quarrying rather than that of mining in the ordinary 
sense, the ore being scooped from the surface of the 
ground. One naturally thinks of a mine as being 
subterranean; but in the great open-pit mines in the 
Lake Superior region, which are the largest mines in 
the world, all the mining is done at the surface of the 
earth. 

It should not be imderstood, however, that in such 
mines nature has left the red iron ore exposed at the 
surface in any great quantities. On the contrary, it 
is usually covered by a layer of earth ranging from a 
yard to ten or more yards in depth, and this, of course, 
must be removed before open-pit methods can be prac- 
tised. Prospecting for such deposits is therefore just 
as necessary as in cases where the deposit is situated 
much deeper in the earth; and the business of pros- 

[274] 



THE AGE OF STEEL 

pecting by ^Hest pit** men is as important an industry 
as ever. 

When an available open-pit mine of sufficient extent 
has been located the gigantic task of '^ stripping" or re- 
moving the overlying layer of earth begins. Immense 
areas of land have been thus stripped in some of these 
undertakings, no difficulties being considered insur- 
mountable. If a small river-bed lies in an unfavorable 
position, the course of the river is changed regardless 
of expense. Farms and farm houses are purchased 
and literally carted away, neither land nor houses 
representing values worth considering when compared 
with the stratum of ore beneath them. The single 
contract for stripping one area in the Lake Superior 
region was let for a sum amounting to half a million 
dollars. 

As soon as a sufficiently large area has been stripped, 
railroads are constructed into the pit, steam shovels 
are run into place, and the actual work of mining 
begins. Five shovels full make a car-load, and under 
ordinary circumstances the five loads may be delivered 
in as many minutes. 

The number of men required to manipulate one of 
these steam shovels is from ten to twelve. The ore 
itself is frequently so hard that the scoop of the shovel 
could not penetrate it until loosened and broken up, 
and it is the business of the gang of workmen to do 
this and slide the ore down within easy working dis- 
tance of the shovel. This is mostly done by blasting 
with dynamite and powder, little of the actual labor 
being performed by hand. In blasting, a deep hole 

[275] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 



1 



is first drilled into the ore near the top of the embank- 
ment, and into this hole a stick of dynamite is dropped i 
and exploded. This enlarges the cavity sufficiently I 
so that a quantity of blasting powder may be poured 
in and set off, tumbling the ore down within reach of the 
shovel. 

This ore is frequently almost as hard as iron itself, 
many of the pieces thus dislodged being too large for 
convenient handling, either by the steam shovel or 
in the chutes at the wharves, and must be still further 
broken up. This is sometimes done by the men with 
picks; but in mining on a large scale, where the deposit 
is all of a very hard nature, crushing machines are 
used. 

In this manner the steam shovel is kept constantly 
supplied with ore for the waiting train of cars. These 
trains are arranged on a track running parallel with the 
track from which the steam shovel operates, and at such 
a distance that the centre of the car will be directly 
under the opening in the bottom of the shovel when 
it is swimg around on its crane. The engineer in 
charge of the locomotive drawing the train stops it 
in a position so that the first shovelful of ore will be 
dumped into the forward end of the first car. As each 
successive shovelful is deposited, representing about 
one-fifth of a car-load, the train is pulled or backed 
along the track about one-fifth of a car-length. In 
this manner it is only necessary for the steam shovel 
to be swung into the same position and dumped at 
the same point each time to insure the proper loading 
of the cars. 

[276] 



THE AGE OF STEEL 

From what has been said it will be seen that in this 
open-pit mining the steam engine and steam locomo- 
tive still play a conspicuous part; but in the other forms 
of iron mining, electric or compressed-air motors 
are used, as much better adapted for underground 
work. In the Lake Superior region, where everything 
is done by the most modem methods, the use of horses 
and mules for hauling purposes is practically unknown. 

The cars used for hauling the ore are of peculiar 
construction. The latest types are built of steel with 
a carrying capacity of fifty tons of ore, and are so 
made that by simply knocking loose a few pins their 
bottoms open and discharge the ore into the receiving 
bins on the wharves, or into the chutes leading to the 
w^aiting boats. 

A perennial problem in iron mining, whether sur- 
face or subterranean, just as in all other kinds of 
mining, is the removal of accumulations of water, some 
of these mines filling at the rate of from twenty-five 
to thirty thousand gallons an hour. But an equally 
important problem is that of removing moisture from 
the ore itself. Obviously every additional pound of 
moisture adds to the cost and difficulty in handling, and 
inasmuch as this ore must be transported a distance of 
something like a thousand miles, necessitating three 
or four handlings in the process, the aggregate amount 
of wasted energy caused by each ton of water is enor- 
mous. It has been found that at least ten per cent of 
the moisture may be dried out of the ore before shipping, 
and that the ore does not tend to absorb moisture again 
under ordinary circumstances once it has been dried. 

[277] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

This is of course of great advantage where it is found 
necessary to store it in heaps some httle time before 
shipping. 



FROM MINE TO FURNACE 

In most industries, particularly where the percentage 
of waste products is large, it is found advantageous 
and economical to establish factories as near the source 
of supply of raw material as possible. But the iron 
ore mined in the Lake Superior region is transported 
something like a thousand miles before being delivered 
to the factories. The question naturally arises. Why 
is not the ore turned into pig iron or steel ingots at 
once as near the mouths of the mines as possible, and 
sent in this condensed form to the factories, thus saving 
more than half the cost of transportation ? The answer 
is simple: the coal mines and steel factories lie in the 
East, one established by nature, the other by man many 
years before iron ore was found in the Lake region. 
And it is found just as cheap and easy to transport the 
iron to the coal regions as it would be to transport 
the coal to the ore regions. Furthermore, the fac- 
tories in the neighborhood of Pittsburg and along the 
southern shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario are 
near the great centres of civilization, and are accessible 
the year round; while the Lake Superior region is 
"frozen in" for at least three months in the year. 

And so, in place of a great traffic of coal westward 
to the Lake Superior regions, there is a great east- 
ward traffic of ore, by rail and water, passing from the 

[278] 



THE AGE OF STEEL 

mines to furnaces and factories a thousand miles away. 
Indeed, this is probably the greatest and most remark- 
able system of transportation in the world. Specially 
constructed trains, wharves, boats, and machinery, 
used for this single purpose, and not dupHcated either 
in design or extent, make this stupendous enterprise 
a unique, as well as a purely American one. 

The transportation begins with the train loads of ore 
that run from the mines to the lake shore and out upon 
the wharves built to receive them. These wharves 
are enormous structures, sometimes half a mile in 
length, built up to about the height of the masts of ore 
boats. On the sides and in the centres of these tow- 
ering structures are huge bins for holding the ore, these 
bins communicating directly with the holds of the ore 
steamers tied up alongside. Four tracks are frequently 
laid on the top of the wharves, and are so arranged 
that trains four abreast can dump the ore into the bins, 
or waiting ships, at the same time. If the bins are 
empty and boats waiting to receive a cargo, the ore 
is discharged by long chutes into the holds from the 
cars. Otherwise the bins are filled, the trains return- 
ing to the mines as quickly as possible for fresh loads. 

The boats for receiving this cargo are of special 
design, many of them differing very greatly in appear- 
ance from ordinary ocean liners of corresponding size. 
This is particularly true of the '^ whale-backs'' which 
have little in common in appearance with ordinary 
steamers except in the matter of funnels; and even these 
are misplaced stemwards to a distance quite out of 
drawing with the length of the hull. Their shape is 

[279] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

that of the ordinary type of submarine boat — that is, 
cigar- shaped — this effect being obtained by a curved 
deck completely covering the place ordinarily occu- 
pied by a flat deck. A wheel-house, like a battle-ship's 
conning- tower, is placed well forward, supported on 
steel beams some distance above the curved deck for 
observation purposes; and engines, boilers, and coal 
bunkers occupy a small space in the stem. The boat, 
therefore, is mostly hold. 

But the ^'whale-backs'' form only a small portion 
of the ore-fleet. The ordinary type of boat conforms 
more nearly to the shape of ocean boats, except that 
the bridge, wheel-house, and engines are located as 
in the whale-backs. The bows of these boats are 
blunt, the desideratum in such craft being hull-ca- 
pacity rather than speed. For sea- worthiness they 
are equal to any ocean boats, as the battering waves 
of Lake Superior are quite as powerful and even more 
treacherous than those of the Atlantic or Pacific. Some 
of these boats are five hundred feet long, equal to all 
but the largest ocean vessels. Their coal- carrying 
capacity is relatively small, since coaling stations are 
numerous at various points on the journey, and every 
available inch of space is utiHzed for the precious 
iron ore. 

In order to facilitate loading, the decks are literally 
honey-combed with hatches, some boats having fif- 
teen or sixteen openings extending the width of the 
deck. By this arrangement the time of loading is 
reduced to a matter of a few hours, as a dozen chutes, 
each discharging several tons of ore per minute, soon 

[280] 



THE AGE OF STEEL 

fill the yawning compartments with the necessary 
six, eight, or nine thousand tons, that make up the 
cargo. 

Quite recently lake-navigators have learned, what 
rivermen have long known, that cheap transportation 
may be effected on a large scale by barges and towing. 
Before the outbreak of the Civil War forty years ago, 
the Mississippi river swarmed with great cargo-car- 
rying steamers, employing armies of men and consuming 
enormous quantities of fuel. But after the war the 
experiment was tried of hauling the cargoes on barges 
towed by tug boats, and this proved to be so much 
cheaper that the fleet of great river boats soon dis- 
appeared. In somewhat the same way the barge has 
come into use of late years in the ore-traffic, and the 
great ore-steamers now tow behind them one or two 
barges equal in carrying capacity to themselves. In 
this way three ships' cargoes of ore are transported a 
thousand miles by a score of men, a dozen on the steamer 
and three or four on each of the barges. The barges 
themselves are rigged as ships, and if necessary can 
shift for themselves by means of sails attached to their 
stubby masts. But these are used only on special 
and unusual occasions, as in case of accidental part- 
ing of the hawsers during a storm. 

The problem of loading the ships at the ore 
wharves is a simple one as compared with the equally 
important one of transferring the ore from the hold 
to trains of cars in waiting at the eastern end of the 
water route. For four handlings of the ore are nec- 
essary before it is finally deposited in the furnaces in 

[281] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

the east. The first of these is from the mine to cars; 
the second from the cars to the boats; the third from 
the boats to cars; and the fourth from the cars to the 
blast furnaces. 

For many years about the only hand work done in 
any of these processes was that of transferring from 
the boats to the ore-trains, and even here ^^ automatic 
unloaders" are now rapidly supplanting the tedious 
hand method. By the older methods a travelling 
crane, or swinging derrick, dropped a bucket into 
the hold of the ore-vessel, where workmen shovelled 
it full of the red ore. It was then Hfted out by machin- 
ery and the contents dumped into cars in much the 
same manner as that of the steam shovel in the mines. 
Recently, however, a machine has been perfected 
which scoops up the ore from the ship's hold and trans- 
fers it to the cars without the aid of shovellers. The 
only human aid given this gigantic machine is to guide 
it by means of controlling levers — to furnish brains 
for it, in short — the ^'muscle" being furnished by 
steam power. The great arm of this automatic un- 
loader, resembling the sweep of the old-fashioned well 
in principle, moves up and down, burying the jaws of 
the shovel into the ore in the hold, and pulling them 
out again filled with ore, with monotonous regularity, 
quickly emptying the vessel under the guidance of 
half a dozen men, and performing the labor of hun- 
dreds. 

Thus the last field of activity for the laborer and his 
shovel, in the iron- ore industry, has been usurped by 
mechanical devices. From the time the ore is taken 

[282] 



THE AGE OF STEEL 

from the mine until it appears as molten metal from 
the furnaces, it is not touched except by mechanisms 
driven by steam, compressed air, or electricity. And 
yet, so rapid is the growth of the iron and steel industry 
that there is almost always a demand for more workmen. 
For this reason, and perhaps because of the ''Ameri- 
can spirit" among workmen, innovations in the way 
of labor-saving machinery are not resisted among the 
mine laborers. The American workman seldom re- 
sists or attacks machinery on the ground that it ''throws 
him out of a job," as does his English cousin. It 
would be unjust to attribute this attitude to superior 
acumen on the part of the American workman, and 
it is probably a difference in conditions and surround- 
ings that accounts for the diametrically opposite views 
held by laborers on the two sides of the Atlantic. 
But after all, results must speak for themselves, and 
the advantage all lies in favor of the progressive atti- 
tude of the western laborer, if we may judge by the 
relative social status and financial standing of Euro- 
pean and American workmen. 

THE CONVERSION OF IRON ORE INTO IRON AND STEEL 

Since steel is a compound substance composed es- 
sentially of two elementary substances in varying 
proportions, it appears that the name "steel," like 
wood, refers to a class of which there are several vari- 
eties. This, of course, is the case, but for the moment 
we may consider steel as a single substance composed 
chiefly of iron and containing a certain percentage of 

[283] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

carbon. In this respect it resembles cast iron, steel 
having a smaller amount of carbon. Wrought iron, 
on the other hand, contains no carbon at all, or at 
least only a trace of it. But whatever the ultimate 
destiny of iron ore — ^whether it is to become aristo- 
cratic manganese steel, or plebeian cast iron — it must 
first pass through certain processes before being 
"converted." 

To extract the pure iron from the iron ore it is nec- 
essary to heat the ore in a furnace containing a certain 
quantity of coal, coke, or charcoal, and limestone. 
The furnaces used in this process are known as blast- 
furnaces, and in these about one ton of iron is extracted 
for every two tons of Lake Superior ore, one and a 
quarter tons of coke, and half a ton of limestone used. 
These quantities are by no means constant, of course, 
but they may be taken as representing roughly the 
relative amounts of material that must be fed into 
the furnaces. 

Like everything else in the world of iron and steel, 
these blast-furnaces have undergone revolutionary 
improvements during the past quarter of a century. 
From being most dangerous and destructive struc- 
tures causing frightful loss of life and producing only 
about one ton of iron a day for every man working 
about them, as formerly, they have now become rela- 
tively harmless monsters, capable of turning out six 
times that quantity of ore for each man employed. 

The older blast-furnace was a huge, chimney-like 
structure, perhaps a hundred feet high, into which the 
ore, coal, and limestone were poured. Most of the 

[284] 



THE AGE OF STEEL 

work about these furnaces was done by manual labor, 
or at least manual labor was an active assistant to the 
machinery used in manipulating the furnaces. The 
top of the furnace was closed in by a great movable 
lid, or ^^bell," and the material for charging it was 
hauled up the sides by elevators and dumped in at 
the top. About the top of the furnace was constructed 
a staging upon which the workmen stood, an elevator 
shaft connecting the staging with the groimd. The 
ore and other materials were brought to the foot of 
the shaft on cars from which it was shovelled into pecu- 
liarly designed wheelbarrows, trundled to the elevator, 
and hauled to the top. 

In order to dump the wheelbarrow loads into the 
furnaces it was necessary to raise the bell. This was 
always dangerous, and frequently resulted in the suffo- 
cation or injury of the workmen on the staging. For 
when the bell was raised there was an escape of poi- 
sonous gases, which might flare out in a sheet of flame, 
with the possibility of burning or suffocating the work- 
men. The fumes from these gases, if inhaled in small 
quantities, might simply cause coughing, hiccoughing, 
or dizziness; but when inhaled in large quantities 
they struck down a man like the fumes of chloroform, 
suffocating him in a few seconds if he was not removed 
at once into a purer atmosphere. Indeed, the Kke- 
lihood of this was so great that at many of these fur- 
naces a special workman was detailed to take the 
position on the staging, well out of range of the gas, 
his sole duty being to rescue any of the men who 
might be overcome, and hurry them as quickly as pos- 

[285] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

sible down the elevator shaft into the pure atmosphere 
below. It was not an uncommon thing in the neigh- 
borhood of these older furnaces to see stretched about on 
the ground at the base several workmen in various stages 
of suffocation. Fortunately, by use of precautionary 
measures, fatal accidents were rather unusual, the men 
being overcome only temporarily, and usually recov- 
ering quickly and returning to work. 

But the poisonous gas coming from the top of the 
furnace was not the only, nor the worst, danger con- 
stantly menacing the men on the staging. Their 
greatest dread was the possibility of explosions occurring 
in the furnace, which might hurl the bell into the air 
and deluge the upper structure with molten metal. 
Against this possibihty there was no safeguard in the 
older furnaces, explosions occurring without warning 
and frequently with terrible effects. But fortunately 
these older types of furnaces are being rapidly replaced 
by the newer forms in which the danger to life, at least 
from gas and explosions, is minimized. And even in 
the older furnaces, improvements in the structure of 
the bell and in methods of filling have greatly lessened 
the dangers. 

In the modem type of blast-furnace the work at the 
top formerly performed by men on the staging is ac- 
complished entirely by machinery. The general appear- 
ance of these furnaces is that of huge iron pipes or 
kettles mounted on several iron legs. The outer struc- 
ture, or shaft, is constructed of plate iron, but this 
is lined with fire brick of considerable thickness, and 
may have a water jacket interposed between these 

[286] 



THE AGE OF STEEL 

bricks and the shaft. About this large kettle are 
smaller kettles of somewhat similar shape having pipes 
leading from their tops to the larger structure. These 
smaller kettles are the ''stoves" used in producing the 
hot air for the furnace. 

The working capacity of some of these furnaces is 
in the neighborhood of a thousand tons of iron a day, 
although the average furnace produces only about half 
that quantity. The powerful machinery used for 
charging these monster caldrons hauls the ore and 
other charging materials to the top and dumps it in 
car-load lots. 

In the older methods of manufacturing steel, the 
contents of the blast-furnaces were first drawn off 
into molds and allowed to cool into what is known as 
pig-iron. It was then necessary to re-heat this iron 
and treat it by the various methods for producing 
the kind of steel desired. By the newer methods, how- 
ever, time and money are saved by converting the 
liquid iron from the blast-furnace directly into steel 
without going through the transitional stage of cooling 
it into pigs. Pigs of iron are still made in enormous 
quantities, to be sure, but mostly for shipment to dis- 
tant places or for stores as stock material. For statis- 
tical purposes, however, the entire product of the blast- 
furnace, whether liquid or solid, is known as "pig iron." 

The older method of removing the iron from the 
blast furnaces was by tapping at the opening near 
the bottom, the stream of liquid iron being allowed 
to flow into a connected series of sand molds, each 
mold being about three feet long by three or four inches 

[287] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

wide. The bottom of these molds was flat but as the 
metal cooled in them the upper surface became round 
in shape, assuming a fanciful resemblance to a pig's 
back. In this molding a great amount of time was 
wasted in the slow process of cooling, and a large ex- 
penditure of energy wasted in this handling and re- 
handling of the metal. 

In modem smelting works, however, pigs are no 
longer cast in sand molds, the molten metal from the 
furnace being discharged directly into iron molds 
attached to an endless chain. These molds are long, 
narrow, and shallow, having the general shape of 
sand molds. Each mold as it passes beneath the open- 
ing in the furnace remains just long enough to receive 
the requisite amount of metal to fill it, and then moves 
on to a point where it is either sprayed with water, 
or cooled by actually passing through a tank of water, 
emerging from this bath with the metal sufficiently 
solidified so that it may be dropped into a waiting car 
at the turning point of the endless chain. In this 
manner the charge from the blast-furnace may be 
drawn, cooled, and converted into pigs, loaded into 
cars, and hauled away without extra handlings or 
loss of time, the whole process occupying practically 
no more time than the initial step of tapping by the 
older method. 

Where the contents of the blast-furnace are to be 
converted into steel at once, the molten metal is run 
off into movable tanks which carry it directly to the 
steel furnaces. These tanks, holding perhaps twenty 
tons of metal, are made of thick iron lined with fire 

[288] 



THE AGE OF STEEL 

brick, and arranged on low, flat cars designed specially 
for the purpose. These tanks are run under the spout 
of the furnace, filled with molten metal, and drawn 
to the steel works, possibly five miles away. As a rule, 
the distance is much less, but as far as the condition 
of the metal is concerned distance seems to make 
little difference, as even at the extreme distance there 
is no apparent cooling of the seething mass. The 
intense heat given off by these trains necessitates 
specially constructed cars, tracks, bridges, and cross- 
ings. 

The destination of this train load of iron pots is 
the ^^ mixer" — a great 200- ton kettle in which the prod- 
ucts from the various furnaces are mixed and rendered 
uniform in quality. On the arrival of the train at the 
mixer, Titanic machinery seizes the twenty-ton pots and 
dumps their contents bodily into the glowing pool in the 
great crucible. Like the filling process, this operation 
occupies only a few minutes. 

From the mixer the metal is poured out into ladles 
and transferred immediately to the "converter" — 
the important development of Sir Henry Bessemer^s 
discovery that has made possible the modem steel 
industry. This converter resembles in shape some 
of the old mortars used in the American Civil War — 
barrel-shaped structures suspended vertically by trun- 
nions at the middle and having an opening at the top. 
Into this opening at the top the metal from the mixer 
is poured and when the converter has been sufl&ciently 
charged a blast of cooled air is blown in at the bottom 
through the molten metal. This blast emerges at 

VOL. VI. — 19 [ 289 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

the top as a long roaring flame, of a red color at first 
but gradually changing into white, and then faint 
blue. These changes in color are indicative of the 
changes that are taking place in the metal, and the 
appearance of a certain shade of color indicates that 
the conversion into steel is complete, and that it is 
time for shutting off the blast of air. Any mistake in 
this matter — even the variation of thirty seconds' time 
— means a loss of thousands of dollars in the quality 
of steel produced. The man whose duty it is to de- 
termine this important point, therefore, holds an ex- 
ceptionally delicate and responsible position, and 
receives pay accordingly. 

In deciding the exact moment when the blast shall 
be turned off, this workman is guided entirely by the 
sense of sight. Mounted on a platform commanding 
the best possible view of the mouth of the converter 
and wearing green glass goggles of special construc- 
tion, this man watches the change of color in the flame 
until a certain shade is reached — a shade that to the 
ordinary untrained observer does not differ in appear- 
ance from that of a moment before — when he gives 
the signal to shut off the blast. When this signal is 
given the contents of the converter is no longer 
common-place cast iron, but steel, ready to be molded 
into rails, boilers, or a thousand and one other 
useful things. 

The contents of the converter may now be drawn 
off as liquid steel into molds of any desired shape and 
size, and when cooled will be ready for shipment. 
But in the great steel factories the metal is not ordi- 

[290] 



THE AGE OF STEEL 

narily allowed to cool completely before being sent 
to the rolling mills, being drawn off into molds placed 
along the surface of small, fiat cars. These molds 
are rectangular, ordinarily four or five feet high by 
less than two feet in diameter. The metal is poured 
into openings in the top of each mold, and allowed to 
cool, solidify, and to contract enough to permit 
the outer casings of the molds to be pulled off by 
machinery, leaving the glowing "ingots" of steel 
ready for molding by machinery in the mills. 

The process just described is the one by which 
"Bessemer steeP' is made. There is another impor- 
tant process in use, the "open hearth'^ method, which 
differs considerably from this; but before considering 
this process something more should be said of the man 
whose discoveries made possible the modem steel 
industry. 

SIR HENRY BESSEMER 

In the history of the progress of science and invention 
some one great name is usually pre-eminently asso- 
ciated with epoch-marking advances, although there 
may be a cluster of important but minor associates. 
This is true in the history of the modem steel industry, 
and the central name here is that of Sir Henry Bessemer. 

Bessemer was bom at Charlton, England, on Jan. 
19, 1813. Always of an inventive tum of mind, his 
attention was first directed to improving the methods 
then in use for the manufacture of steel, while experi- 
menting with the manufacture of guns. After several 

[291] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

years of experimenting in his little iron works near 
London, he reached some definite results which he 
announced to the British Association in 1856. In this 
paper he described a process of converting cast iron 
into steel by removing the excess of carbon in the molten 
metal by a blast of air driven through it. This paper, 
in short, described the general principles still employed 
in the Bessemer process of manufacturing steel. And 
although the first simple process described by Bessemer 
has been modified and supplemented in recent years, it 
was in this paper that the process which placed steel 
upon the market as a comparatively cheap, and in- 
finitely superior, substitute for ordinary iron, was first 
disclosed. 

This famous paper before the British Association 
aroused great interest among the English ironmasters, 
and applications for licenses to use the new process 
were made at once by several firms. But the success 
attained by these firms was anything but satisfactory, 
although Bessemer himself was soon able to manufac- 
ture an entirely satisfactory product. The disappointed 
ironmasters, therefore, returned to the earlier proc- 
esses, the inventor himself being about the only 
practical ironmaster who persisted in using it. 

Recognizing the defects in his process, Bessemer 
set about overcoming them, and at the end of two years 
he had so succeeded in perfecting his methods that his 
product, equal in every respect to that of the older 
process, could be manufactured at a great saving of 
time and money. But the ironmasters were now skep- 
tical, and refused to be again inveigled into applying 

[292] 



THE AGE OF STEEL 

for licenses. Bessemer, therefore, with the aid of 
friends, erected extensive steel works of his own at 
Sheffield, and began manufacturing steel in open com- 
petition with the other steel operators. The price 
at which he was able to sell his product and reaHze a 
profit was so much below the actual cost of manufac- 
ture by the older process, that there was soon conster- 
nation in the ranks of his rivals. For when it became 
known that the firm of Henry Bessemer & Co. was 
selling steel at a price something like one hundred 
dollars a ton less than the ordinary market price, 
there was but one thing left for the ironmasters to do 
— surrender, and apply for licenses to be allowed to 
use the new process. 

By this means, and through the profits of his own 
establishment, Bessemer eventually amassed a well- 
earned fortime. Moreover, he was honored in due 
course by a fellowship in the Royal Society, and 
knighted by his government. 

One other name is usually associated with that of 
Bessemer in the practical development of the inven- 
tor's original idea. That is the name of Robert Mushet, 
and the " Bessemer- Mushet " process is still in use. 
Mushet's improvement over Bessemer's original process 
was that of adding a certain quantity of spiegeU 
eisefij or iron containing manganese, which, for 
some reason not well understood, simplifies the 
process of steel making. Mushet, therefore, must 
be considered as the discoverer of a useful, though 
not an absolutely essential, accessory to the Bessemer 
process. 

[293] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 



OPEN-HEARTH METHOD 

In the open-hearth method the metal from the blast- 
furnaces is not sent to the converter, but is poured 
into oven-like structures built of fire brick, and in these 
heated to a terrific temperature. This heat has the 
same effect upon the metal as the blast of air in 
the Bessemer converter, and this open-hearth process 
has become very popular for manufacturing certain 
kinds of steel. While in the method of appHcation this 
process differs greatly from that of Bessemer, it differs 
largely in the fact that the oxygen necessary to bum off 
the carbonic oxide, silicon, etc., is made to play over 
the molten mass instead of passing through it. 

It has been noted that the old type of blast-furnace 
gave off great quantities of combustible gases which 
became waste products. Even gases containing 
something like 20 or 25 per cent, of carbonic acid may 
be highly inflammable, and thus an enormous quan- 
tity of valuable fuel was constantly wasted. In some 
furnaces, to be sure, they were put to practical use for 
heating the blast, but as the quantities given off were 
greatly in excess of the amount necessary for this pur- 
pose, there was a constant loss even with such furnaces. 

Quite recently it has been found that the gases can 
be used directly in gas engines, developing three or 
four times as much energy in this way as if they were 
used as fuel under ordinary steam boilers. These 
engines are now used for operating the rolling-mill 
machinery, and the machinery of shops adjoining the 

[294] 



THE AGE OF STEEL 

furnaces, which, however, must not be situated at 
any very great distances from the furnaces. This ac- 
coimts partly for the grouping together of blast-fur- 
naces, rolling mills, and machine shops, the economical 
feature of this arrangement being so great that segre- 
gated establishments find it next to impossible to 
compete in the open market with such "communities" 
under the conditions prevailing in the steel industry. 

ALLOY STEELS 

The introduction of Krupp steel, or nickel, for 
armor plates, a few years ago, called attention in a 
popular way to the fact that for certain purposes pure 
steel — that is, iron plus a certain quantity of carbon — 
was not as useful as an alloy of steel with some other 
metal. An alloy was a great improvement over ordi- 
nary steel or iron plates used in warfare; but in the 
more peaceful pursuits, as well as in warfare, certain 
alloyed steels, such as chrome steel, tungsten steel, 
and manganese steel play a very important part. 

Chrome steel, for example, in the form of projec- 
tiles, is the most dreaded enemy of nickel-steel armor 
plates, because of the hardness and elasticity of armor- 
piercing projectiles made of it. Such a steel contains 
about two per cent, of chromium with about one or 
two per cent, of carbon, which when suddenly cooled 
is extremely hard and tough. This kind of steel and 
manganese steel are the best guards against the 
burglar and safe-blower, as they resist even very highly 
tempered and hardened drills. As this steel is rela- 

[295] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

tively cheap to manufacture, it is frequently used in 
the construction of safes and burglar-proof gratings. 
For this purpose, however, it is sometimes combined in 
alternate layers with soft wrought iron, the steel resist- 
ing the point of the drill, while the iron furnishes the 
necessary elasticity to resist the blows of the sledge. 
The bars used in modem jails and prisons are often 
made in a similar manner of alternate sheaths of iron 
and chrome steel. Against the time-honored "hack- 
saw," the bugbear of prison officials for generations, 
such bars an inch and a quarter in diameter offer an 
almost insurmoimtable obstacle; and they are equally 
effective against a heavy sledge hammer. 

At least one case is recorded in which the use of 
these "composite'' bars resulted in a disastrous fire 
in a prison. A small blaze having started in the base- 
ment of this prison, attempts to reach it with a stream 
of water were defeated by the bars of the steel gratings 
at the windows, which would not admit the nozzle of 
the hose. A corps of men armed with hack-saws, 
crow-bars, and sledges attacked this grating, which, 
if made of ordinary steel, could have been readily 
broken. But against these composite bars they pro- 
duced no appreciable effect. Meanwhile the fire 
gained rapidly, threatening the building and its eight 
hundred inmates, and was only checked after holes 
had been made through fire-proof floors and ceilings 
for admitting the nozzle. 

Manganese steel is peculiar in becoming ductile 
by sudden cooling, and brittle on cooling slowly — 
precisely the reverse of ordinary steeL It contains about 

[296] 



THE AGE OF STEEL 

1.50 per cent, of carbon, and about 12 per cent, of 
manganese. If a small quantity of manganese, that 
is, I or 2 per cent., is used the steel is very brittle, 
and becomes more so as greater quantities of the man- 
ganese are used, up to about 5 per cent. From that 
point, however, it becomes more ductile as the quan- 
tity of manganese is increased, until at about 12 per 
cent, it reaches an ideal state. When used for safes 
and money vaults this steel has one great advantage 
over chrome steel — it is not affected by heat. By using 
a blow-pipe and heating a limited area of steel, the 
burglar is able to "draw the temper" of ordinary steel 
to a sufficient depth so that he can drill a hole to admit 
a charge of dynamite; but manganese steel retains its 
temper under the blow-pipe no matter how long it 
may be applied. Against attacks of the sledge, how- 
ever, it is probably inferior to chrome steel. 

Like manganese steel, tungsten steel retains its 
temper even when heated to high temperatures. For 
this reason it is used frequently in making tools for 
metal-lathe work where thick slices of iron are to be 
cut, as even at red heat such a tool continues to cut 
off metal chips as readily as when kept at a lower tem- 
perature. This steel contains from 6 to 10 per cent, 
of tungsten, a metallic element with which we have 
previously made acquaintance in our studies of the 
incandescent lamp. 



[297! 



XIV 

SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS OF APPLIED SCIENCE 

NOT long ago a Kttle company of men met in 
a lecture hall of Columbia University to dis- 
cuss certain questions in applied science. 
It was a small gathering, and its proceedings were so 
unspectacular as to be esteemed worth only a few lines 
of newspaper space. The very name — "Society of 
Electro-Chemistry" — seemed to mark it as having 
to do with things that are caviare to the general. The 
name seems to smack of fumes of the laboratory, far 
removed from the interests of the man in the street. 
Yet Professor Chandler said in his address of welcome 
to the members of the society, that though theirs was 
the very youngest of scientific organizations, he could 
confidently predict for it a future position outranking 
that of all its sister societies; and his prediction was 
based on the belief that electro-chemistry is destined 
to revolutionize vast and important departments of 
modem industry. A majority of the heat-using methods 
of mechanics will owe their future development to 
the new science. 

In a word, then, despite its repellant name, the so- 
ciety in question has to do with affairs that are of the 
utmost importance to the man in the street. Though 
its members may sometimes deal in occult formulas 

[298] 



SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS 

and abstruse calculations, yet the final goal of their 
studies has to do not with abstractions but with prac- 
ticaHties, — with the saving of fuel, the smelting of 
metals, the manufacture of commodities. But theory 
in the main must precede practice — the child creeps 
before it walks. "The later developments of indus- 
trial chemistry," says Sir William Ramsey, "owe their 
success entirely to the growth of chemical theory; and 
it is obvious," he adds significantly, "that that nation 
which possesses the most competent chemists, theoret- 
ical and practical, is destined to succeed in the com- 
petition with other nations for commercial supremacy 
and all its concomitant advantages." 

Fortunately this interdependence of science and in- 
dustry is not a mere matter of prophecy — for the future 
tense is never quite so satisfying as the present. Vastly 
important changes have already been accomplished; 
old industries have been revolutionized, and new 
industries created. The commercial world of to-day 
owes vast debts to the new science. Professor Chand- 
ler outlined the character of one or two of these in the 
address just referred to. He cited in some detail, for 
example, the difference between old methods and 
new in such an industry as the manufacture of caustic 
soda. He painted a vivid word picture of the dis- 
tressing conditions under which soda was produced 
in the old-time factories. Salt and sulphuric acid 
were combined to produce sulphate of soda, which 
was mixed with lime and coal and heated in a rever- 
beratory furnace. Each phase of the process was 
laborious. The workmen operating the furnaces 

[299] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

sweltered all day long in an almost unbearable atmos- 
phere — stripped to the waist, dripping with perspiration, 
sometimes overcome with heat. Their task was one 
of the most trying to which a man could be subjected. 

But to-day, in such estabHshments as the soda manu- 
factories at Niagara Falls, all this is changed. A salt 
solution circulates continuously in retorts where it can 
be acted upon by electricity supplied from dynamos 
operated by the waters of the Niagara River. The 
workmen, comfortably dressed and moving about in 
a normal temperature, have really nothing to do but 
refill the retorts now and then and remove the finished 
product. "It almost seems," Professor Chandler 
added with a smile, "as if workmen ought to be glad 
to pay for the privilege of participating in so pleasant 
an occupation. At all events it is, in all seriousness, 
a pleasure for the visitor who knows nothing of old 
practices to witness this triumph of a modem scientific 
method." 

Even more interesting, said Professor Chandler, are 
the processes employed in the modem method of pro- 
ducing the metal aluminum by the electrolytic process. 
The process is based on the discovery made by Mr. 
Charles M. Hall while he was a student working in 
a college laboratory, that the mineral cryolite will 
absorb alumina to the extent of twenty-five per cent, 
of its bulk, as a sponge absorbs water. The solution 
of this compoimd is then acted on by electricity, and 
the aluminum is deposited as pure metal. A curiously 
interesting practical detail of the process is based on the 
fact that pulverized coke remains perfectly dry and 

[300] 



SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS 

rises to the surface when stirred into a crucible contain- 
ing the hot alumina solution : moreover, it rises to the 
surface and remains there as a shield to protect the 
workmen against the heat of the solution. It serves 
yet another purpose, as the powdered alumina may be 
sifted upon it and left there to dry before being stirred 
into the crucible. A most ingenious yet simple device 
tells the workman when any particular crucible is in 
need of replenishing. A small, ordinary, incandescent 
electric-light bulb is placed in circuit between the poles 
that convey the electric current through the alumina 
solution. So long as the crucible contains alumina, 
the bulb does not glow, because twenty volts of elec- 
tricity are required to make it incandescent, whereas 
seven volts pass through the solution. But so soon as 
the alumina becomes exhausted, resistance to the 
current rises in the cryolite solution and, as it were, 
dams back the electric current until it overflows into 
the wire at sufficient pressure to start the signal lamp. 
Then it is necessary merely for a workman to stir 
into the solution the dry alumina resting on the sur- 
face, along with the coke that supports it. This, of 
course, reestablishes the electrolytic process; the lamp 
goes out and the coke, unaffected by its bath, rises to 
the surface to support a fresh supply of alumina. 

Such a process as this, contrasted with the usual 
methods of smelting metals in fiercely heated furnaces, 
seems altogether wonderful. Here a pure metal is ex- 
tracted from the clayey earth of which it formed a part, 
without being melted or subjected to any of the familiar 
processes of the picturesque, but costly, laborious, and 

[301] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

even dangerous, blast-furnaces. There is no glare 
and roar of fires; there are no showers of sparks; there 
is no gush of fiery streams of molten metal. A silent 
and invisible electric current, generated by the fall 
of distant waters, does the work more expeditiously, 
more efficiently, and more cheaply than it could be 
done by any other method as yet discovered. 

Fully to appreciate the importance of the method 
just outlined, we must reflect that aluminum is a metal 
combining in some measure the properties of silver, 
copper, and iron. It rivals copper as a conductor of 
electricity; like silver it is white in color and little 
subject to tarnishing; like iron it has great hardness 
and tensile strength. True, it does not fully compete 
with the more familiar m^etals in their respective fields; 
but it combines many valuable qualities in fair degree ; 
and it has an added property of extreme lightness that 
is all its own. Add to this the fact that aluminum is 
extremely abundant everywhere in nature — it is a 
constituent of nearly all soils and is computed to form 
about the twelfth part of the entire crust of the earth 
— whereas the other valuable metals are relatively rare, 
and it will appear that aluminum must be destined 
to play an important part in the mechanics of the 
future. There is every indication that the iron beds 
will begin to give out at no immeasurably distant day; 
but the supply of aluminum is absolutely inexhaustible. 
Until now there has been no means known of extract- 
ing it cheaply from the clay of which it forms so im- 
portant a constituent. But at last electro-chemistry 
has solved the problem ; and aluminum is sure to take 

[302] 



SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS 

an important place among the industrial metals, even 
should it fall short of the preeminent position as 
"the metal of the future" that was once prematurely 
predicted for it. 

NITROGEN FROM THE AIR 

There is a curious suggestiveness about this finding 
of aluminum at our very door, so to speak, some scores 
of centuries after the relatively rare and inaccessible 
metals had been known and utilized by man. But there 
is another yet more striking instance of an abundant 
element which man needed, but knew not how to obtain 
until the science of our own day solved the problem of 
making it available. This is the case of the nitrogen of 
the air. As every one knows, this gas forms more 
than three-fourths of the bulk of the atmosphere. 
But, unlike the other chief constituent, oxygen, it is 
not directly available for the use of plants and animals. 
Yet nitrogen is an absolutely essential constituent of 
the tissues of every living organism, vegetable and 
animal. Any living thing from which it is withheld 
must die of starvation, though every other constituent 
of food be suppHed without stint; and the fact that 
the starving organism is bathed perpetually in an in- 
exhaustible sea of atmosphere chiefly composed of 
nitrogen would not abate by one jot the certainty of 
its doom. 

To be made available as food for plants (and thus 
indirectly as food for animals) nitrogen must be com- 
bined with some other element, to form a soluble salt. 

[303] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

But unfortunately the atoms of nitrogen are very 
little prone to enter into such combinations; under all 
ordinary conditions they prefer a celibate existence. 
In every thunder-storm, however, a certain quantity 
of nitrogen is, through the agency of lightning, made 
to combine with the hydrogen of dissociated water- 
vapor, to form ammonia; and this ammonia, washed 
to the earth dissolved in rain drops, will in due course 
combine with constituents of the soil and become avail- 
able as plant food. Once made captive in this manner, 
the nitrogen atom may pass through many changes and 
vicissitudes before it is again freed and returned to 
the atmosphere. It may, for example, pass from the 
tissues of a plant to the tissues of a herbivorous animal 
and thence to help make up the substance of a car- 
nivorous animal. As animal excreta or as residue of 
decaying flesh it may return to the soil, to form the 
chief constituent of a guano bed, or of a nitrate bed, — 
in which latter case it has combined with lime or so- 
dium to form a rocky stratum of the earth's crust that 
may not be disturbed for untold ages. 

A moment's reflection on the conditions that govern 
vegetable and animal life in a state of nature will make 
it clear that a soil once suppHed with soluble nitrates 
is likely to be replenished almost perpetually through 
the decay of vegetation. But it is equally clear that 
when the same soil is tilled by man, the balance of 
nature is likely to be at once disturbed. Every pound of 
grain or of meat shipped to a distant market removes a 
portion of nitrogen ; and unless the deficit is artificially 
supplied, the soil becomes presently impoverished. 

[304] 



SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS 

But an artificial supply of nitrogen is not easily se- 
cured — though something like twenty-five million tons 
of pure nitrogen are weighing down impartially upon 
every square mile of the earth's surface. In the midst 
of this tantalizing sea of plenty, the farmer has been 
obKged to take his choice between seeing his land be- 
come yearly more and more sterile and sending to 
far-off nitrate beds for material to take the place of 
that removed by his successive crops. The most 
important of the nitrate beds are situated in ChiH, 
and have been in operation since the year 1830. The 
draft upon these beds has increased enormously in 
recent years, with the increasing needs of the world's 
population. In the year 1870, for example, only 
150,000 tons of nitrate were shipped from the Chili 
beds; but in 1890 the annual output had grown to 
800,000 tons; and it now exceeds a million and a half. 
Conservative estimates predict that at the present 
rate of increased output the entire supply v^U be ex- 
hausted in less than twenty years. And for some years 
back scientists and economists have been asking them- 
selves, What then? 

But now electro-chemistry has found an answer — 
even while the alarmists were predicting dire disaster. 
Means have been found to extract the nitrogen from the 
atmosphere, in a form available as plant food, and at 
a cost that enables the new synthetic product to com- 
pete in the market with the ChiH nitrate. So all dan- 
ger of a nitrogen famine is now at an end, — and applied 
science has placed to its credit another triumph, second 
to none, perhaps, among all its conquests. The author 

VOL. VI. — 20 [ 305 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

of this truly remarkable feat is a Swedish scientist, 
Christian Birkeland by name, Professor of Physics in 
the University of Christiania. His experiments were 
begun only about the year 1903, and the practical ma- 
chinery for commercializing the results — in which enter- 
prise Professor Birkeland has had the co-operation of a 
practical engineer, Mr. S. Eyde — is still in a sense in 
the experimental stage, — albeit a large factory was put 
in successful operation in 1905 at Notodden, Norway. 
Professor Birkeland has thus accomplished what many 
investigators in various parts of the world have been 
striving after for years. The significance of his ac- 
complishment consists in the fact that he has demon- 
strated the possibility of making nitrogen combine 
with oxygen in large quantities and at a relatively 
low expense. The mere fact of the combination, as 
a laboratory possibility, had been demonstrated in 
an elder generation by Cavendish, and more recently 
by such workers as Sir William Crookes, and Lord 
Rayleigh in England and Professors W. Mutjmaan 
and H. Hofer in Germany. Moreover, the experi- 
ments of Messrs. Bradley and Lovejoy, conducted on 
a commercial scale at Niagara Falls, had seemed to 
give promise of a complete solution of the problem; 
had, indeed, produced a nitrogen compound from the 
air in commercial quantity, but not, unfortimately, 
at a cost that made competition with the Chili nitrate 
possible. Equally unsuccessful in solving this impor- 
tant part of the problem had been the experiments, 
conducted on a large scale, of Professors Kowalski 
and Moscicki, at Freiburg. 

[3°6] 



SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS 

All these experimenters had adopted the same agent 
as the means of, so to say, forcing the transformation 
— ^namely, electricity. The American investigators 
employed a current of ten thousand volts; the German 
workers carried the current to fifty thousand volts. 
The flame of the electric arc thus produced ignited 
the nitrogen with which it came in contact readily 
enough; but the difficulty was that it came in contact 
with so little. Despite ingenious arrangements of 
multiple poles, the burning-surface of the multiple 
arc remained so small in proportion to the expenditure 
of energy that the cost of the operation far exceeded 
the commercial value of the product. Such, at least, 
must be the inference from the fact that the establish- 
ments in question did not attain commercial success. 

The peculiarity of Professor Birkeland's method is 
based upon the curious fact that when the electric arc 
is made to pass through a magnetic field, its line of 
flame spreads out into a large disk — "like a flaming 
sun." The sheet of flame thus produced represents no 
greater expenditure of energy than the lightning flash 
of Hght that the same current would produce outside 
the magnetic field, but it obviously adds enormously 
to the arc-light surface that comes in contact with the 
air, and hence in like proportion to the amoimt 
of nitrogen that will be ignited. In point of fact, 
this burning of nitrogen takes place so rapidly in lab- 
oratory experiments as to vitiate the air of the room 
very quickly. In the commercial operation, with 
powerful electro-magnets and a current of five thousand 
volts, operating, of course, in closed chambers, the ratio 

[307] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

between energy expended and result achieved is highly 
satisfactory from a business standpoint, and will doubt- 
less become still more so as the apparatus is further 
perfected. 

To the casual reader, unaccustomed to chemical 
methods, there may seem a puzzle in the explanation 
just outlined. He may be disposed to say, "You speak 
of the nitrogen as being ignited and burned; but if 
it is burned and thus consumed, how can it be of ser- 
vice?" Such a thought is natural enough to one who 
thinks of burning as applied to ordinary fuel, which 
seems to disappear when it is burned. But, of course, 
even the tyro in chemistry knows that the fuel has not 
really disappeared except in a very crude visual sense; 
it has merely changed its form. In the main its solid 
substance has become gaseous, but every atom of it 
is still just as real, if not quite so tangible, as before; 
and the chemist could, under proper conditions, collect 
and weigh and measure the transformed gases, and 
even retransform them into solids. 

In the case of the atmospheric nitrogen, as in the case 
of ordinary fuel, a burning "consists essentially in 
the imion of nitrogen atoms with atoms of oxygen." 
The province of the electric current is to produce the 
high temperature at which alone such union will take 
place. The portion of nitrogen that has been thus 
"burned" is still gaseous, but is no longer in the state 
of pure nitrogen; its atoms are united with oxygen 
atoms to form nitrous oxide gas. This gas, mixed 
with the atmosphere in which it has been generated, may 
now be passed through a reservoir of water, and the 

[308] 



SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS 

new gas combines with a portion of water to form 
nitric acid, each, molecule of which is a compound of 
one atom of hydrogen, one atom of nitrogen, and three 
atoms of oxygen; and nitric acid, as everyone knows, 
is a very active substance, as marked in its eager- 
ness to unite with other substances as pure nitrogen 
is in its aloofness. 

In the commercial nitrogen-plant at Notodden, the 
transformed nitrogen compound is brought into con- 
tact with a solution of milk of lime, with the resulting 
formation of nitrate of Hme (calcium nitrate), a substance 
identical in composition — except that it is of greater 
purity — with the product of the nitrate beds of Chili. 
Stored in closed cans as a milky fluid, the transformed 
atmosphere is now ready for the market. A certain 
amount of it will be used in other manufactories for 
the production of various nitrogenous chemicals; but 
the bulk of it will be shipped to agricultural districts 
to be spread over the soil as fertilizer, and in due course 
to be absorbed into the tissues of plants to form the 
food of animals and man. 

ANOTHER METHOD OF NITROGEN FIXATION 

Just at the time when the Scandinavian experimenters 
were solving the problem of securing nitrogen from the 
air, other experimenters in Italy, operating along to- 
tally different lines, reached the same important result. 
The process employed by these investigators is known 
as the Frank and Caro process, and it bids fair to rival 
the Norwegian method as a commercial enterprise. 

[309] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

The procebS is described as follows by an engineering 
correspondent of the London Times in the Engineering 
Supplement of that periodical for January 22, 1908: 

"This process is based upon the absorption of ni- 
trogen by calcium carbide, when this gas, in the pure 
form, is passed over the carbide heated to a tempera- 
ture of 1,100 degrees centigrade in retorts of special 
form and design. The calcium carbide required as 
raw material for the cyanamide manufacture is pro- 
duced in the usual manner by heating lime and coke 
to a temperature of 2,500 degrees centigrade in electric 
furnaces of the resistance type. 

"The European patent rights of the Frank and Caro 
process have been purchased by the Societa Generale 
per la Cianamide of Rome, and the various subsidiary 
companies promoting the manufacture in Italy, France, 
Switzerland, Norway, and elsewhere, are working 
under arrangement with the parent company as re- 
gards sharing of profits. 

"The first large installation of a plant for carrying 
out this process was erected at Piano d'Orta, in Cen- 
tral Italy, and was put into operation in December, 
1905. The power for this factory is developed by 
an independent company, and is obtained by taking 
water from the river Pescara and leading it to a point 
above the generating station at Tramonti. A head of 
90 feet, equivalent to 8,400 horse-power, is here made 
available for the industries of the district. The power 
of the cyanamide factory is transmitted a distance of 
6i miles at 6,000 volts. An aluminum and chemical 
works are also dependent upon the same power station, 

[310] 



SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS 

"The Piano d'Orta works contains six furnaces 
for the manufacture of cyanamide, each furnace con- 
taining five retorts for absorption of the nitrogen by 
the carbide. A retort is capable of working off three 
charges of loo kilograms (220 pounds) of carbide per 
day of 24 hours, the weight of the charge increasing 
to 125 kilograms by the nitrogen absorbed. The pres- 
ent carbide consumption of the Piano d'Orta factory 
is, therefore, at the rate of about 3,000 tons per annum, 
and the output of calcium cyanamide is about 3,750 
tons per annum. The company controlling the manu- 
facture at Piano d'Orta is named the Societa Italiana 
per la Fabhricazione di Prodotti Azotati. Extensions 
of the factory at this place to a capacity of 10,000 tons 
per annum are already in progress. Another company 
is also planning the erection of similar works at Fiume 
and at Sebenico, on the eastern borders of the Adriatic 
Sea. The additional electric power required will be 
obtained by carrying out the second portion of the 
power development scheme on the river Pescara. A 
fall of 235 feet, equivalent to 22,000 horse-power, is 
available at the new power station, which is being 
erected at Piano d'Orta." 

After stating that companies to operate the Frank 
and Caro process have been organized in France, in 
Switzerland, in Germany, in England, and in America, 
— the last-named plant being at Muscle Shoals, Ten- 
nessee River, in Northern Alabama — the writer con- 
tinues: 

"These facts prove that the manufacture of the new 
nitrogenous manure will soon be carried on in all the 

[311] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

more important countries on both sides of the Atlantic. 
If the financial results come up to the promoter's 
expectations the industry in five years' time will have 
become one of considerable magnitude. 

^^A modification of the original process of some im- 
portance has been suggested by Polzeniusz. This 
chemist has found that the addition of fluorspar (CaFa) 
to the carbide reduces the temperature required for 
the absorption process by 400 degrees centigrade, 
while it also produces a less deliquescent finished 
material. 

"As regards cost of manufacture, no very rehable 
figures are yet available, but the companies promoting 
the new manufacture are regulating their sale prices 
by those of the two rival artificial manures — ammonium 
sulphate and nitrate of soda. Calcium cyanamide 
is now being sold in Germany at is. to is. 6d. (25 to 
37 cents) per unit of combined nitrogen cheaper than 
ammonium sulphate, and 3s. to 3s. 6d. (75 to 87 cents) 
per unit cheaper than nitrate of soda. Whether the 
manufacture will prove remunerative at this price of 
about ;^io los. ($102.50) per ton remains to be seen. 
It is evident that, as the raw material of the cyanamide 
manufacture (calcium carbide) costs at least £S ($40) 
per ton to produce under the most favorable conditions, 
the margin of profit will not be large, and that very 
efficient management will be required to earn fair 
dividends on the capital sunk in the new industry. 

''It must be noted, however, that the processes are 
new and are doubtless capable of improvement as 
experience is gained in working them; while, on the 

[312] 



SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS 

other hand, the competition of the two rival artificial 
manures is likely to diminish as the years pass on. 

"The new industry is, therefore, likely to be a per- 
manent addition to the Hst of electro-metallurgical 
processes. But for the present its success can only 
be expected in centres of very cheap water-power, as, 
for instance, in those locaHties where the electric horse- 
power year can be generated and transmitted to the 
cyanamide works at an inclusive cost of £2 ($10) or 
under." 

ELECTRICAL ENERGY AND HIGH TEMPERATURES 

It will be observed that the active instrumentality 
by which the industrial feats thus far outlined have 
been accomplished, is that weird conveyer of energy 
known as electricity. In the case of the aluminum man- 
ufacture, electricity operated according to the strange 
process of electrolysis, in virtue of which certain atoms 
of matter move to one pole of a battery while other 
atoms move to the opposite pole, thus effecting a sep- 
aration — the result being, in the case in question, the 
deposit of pure aluminum at the negative pole. In 
the case of the nitrogen factories, however, the manner 
of operation of the electric current is quite different. 
Electricity, as such, is not really concerned in the mat- 
ter; the efficiency of the current depends solely upon 
the production of heat. For example, any other 
agency that brought the atmosphere to a corresponding 
temperature would be equally efficacious in igniting 
the nitrogen. But in actual practice, for this particu- 

[313] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

lar purpose, no other known means of producing 
high temperatures could at all compete with the 
electric arc. 

There are numerous other operations involving the 
employment of high temperatures in which electricity 
is equally preeminent. It is feasible with the electric 
arc to attain a temperature of about 3,600 degrees 
centigrade — and even this might be exceeded were 
it not that carbon, of which the electrodes are com- 
posed, volatilizes at that temperature. Meantime, 
the highest attainable temperature with ordinary fuels 
in the blast furnace is only about 1,800 degrees; and 
the oxy-hydrogen flame is only about two hundred 
degrees higher. A mixture of oxygen and acetylene, 
however, bums at a temperature almost equaling that 
of the electric arc; and this flame, manipulated with 
the aid of a blowpipe, offers a useful means of appl3dng 
a high temperature locally, for such processes as the 
welding of metals. The very highest temperatures 
yet reached in laboratory or workshop, however, are 
due to the use of explosive mixtures. Thus a mixture 
of the metal aluminum granulated, and oxide of iron, 
when ignited by a fulminating powder, readjusts its 
atoms to form oxide of aluminum and pure iron, and 
does this with such fervor that a temperature of about 
three thousand degrees is reached, the resulting iron 
being not merely melted but brought almost to the 
boiling point. Practical advantage is taken of this 
reaction for the repair of broken implements of iron 
or steel, the making of continuous rails for trolleys, 
and the Hke. 

[314] 



SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS 

This reaction of aluminum and iron does not, to be 
sure, give a higher temperature than the electric arc; 
but this culminating feat has been achieved, in labora- 
tory experiments, through the explosion of cordite in 
closed steel chambers; the experimenters being the 
EngHshmen Sir Andrew Noble and Sir F. Abel. It 
is difficult to estimate accurately the degree of heat 
and pressure attained in these experiments; but it 
is believed that the temperature approximated 5,000 
degrees centigrade, while the pressure represented 
the almost inconceivable push of ninety tons to the 
square inch. 

It may be of interest to explain that cordite is a form 
of smokeless powder composed of gun cotton, nitro- 
glycerine, and mineral jelly. No doubt the extreme 
heat produced by its explosion is associated with the 
suddenness of the reaction; corresponding to the efl&- 
ciency as a propellant that has led to the adoption of this 
powder for use in the small arms of the British Army. 
No commercial use has yet been made of cordite as 
a mere producer of heat; but there is an interesting 
suggestion of possible future uses in the fact that crys- 
tals of diamond have been foimd in the residue of the 
explosion chamber — microscopic in size, to be sure, but 
veritable diamonds in miniature. Sir William Crookes 
has suggested that, could the reaction be prolonged 
sufficiently, "there is Httle doubt that the artificial 
formation of diamonds would soon pass from the mi- 
croscopic stage to a scale more likely to satisfy the 
requirements of science, if not those of personal 
adornment." 

[315] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 



OTHER INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY AND 
TO-MORROW 

In attempting to suggest the importance of science 
in its relation to modem industries, I have thought it 
better to cite three or four illustrative cases in some 
detail rather than to attempt a comprehensive summary 
of the almost numberless lines of commercial activity 
that have a similar origin and dependence. 

To attempt a full list of these would be virtually 
to give a catalogue of mechanical industries. It may 
be well, however, to point out a few familiar instances, 
in order to emphasize the economic importance of 
the subject; and to suggest a few of the lines along 
which present-day investigators are seeking further 
conquests. 

Very briefly, then, consider how the application of 
scientific knowledge has changed the aspect of the 
productive industries. Thanks to science, farming is 
no longer a haphazard trade. The up-to-date farmer 
knows the chemical constitution of the soil; understands 
what constituents are needed by particular crops and 
what fertilizing methods to employ to keep his land 
from deteriorating. He knows how to select good seed 
according to the teaching of heredity; how to combat 
fungoid and insect pests by chemical means; how to 
meet the encroachments of the army of weeds. In 
the orchard, he can tell by the appearance of leaf and 
bark whether the soil needs more of nitrogen, of pot- 
ash, or of humus; he uses sprays as a surgeon uses 

[316] 



SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS 

antiseptics; he introduces friendly msects to prey 
on insect pests; he irrigates or surface-tills or grows 
cover crops in accordance with a good understanding of 
the laws of capillarity as applied to water in the earth's 
crust. In barnyard and dairy he appHes a knowledge 
of the chemistry of foods in his treatment of flock and 
herd ; he ventilates his stables that the stock may have 
an adequate supply of oxygen ; he milks his cows with 
a mechanical apparatus, extracts the cream with a 
centrifugal "separator," and chums by steam or by 
electric power. 

In the affairs of manufacturer and transporter of 
commodities, methods are no less revolutionary. 
Steam power and electric dynamo everywhere hold 
sway; trolley and electric light and telephone have 
found their way to the most distant hamlet; electri- 
cians and experimental chemists are searching for new 
methods in the factories; artificial stone is competing 
with the product of the quarries; artificial dyes have 
sounded the doom of the madder and indigo industries. 

And yet it requires no great gift of prophecy to see 
that what has been accompHshed is only an earnest 
of what is to come in the not distant future. In every 
direction eager experimenters are on the track of new 
discoveries. Any day a chance observation may open 
new and important fields of exploration, just as Hall's 
observation about the power of cryolite to absorb 
aluminum pointed the way to the new aluminum 
industry; and as Birkeland's chance observation of 
the electric arc in a magnetic field imlocked the secret 
of the unresponsive nitrogen. It will probably not 

[317] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

be long, for example, before a way will be found to 
produce electric light without heat — in imitation of 
the wonderful lamp of the glow-worm. 

Then in due course we must learn to use fuel with- 
out the appalling waste that at present seems unavoid- 
able. A modem steam-engine makes available only 
five to ten per cent, of the energy that the burning 
fuel gives out as heat — the rest is dissipated without 
serving man the slightest useful purpose. Moreover, 
the new studies in radio-activity have taught us that 
every molecule of matter locks up among its whirling 
atoms and corpuscles a store of energy compared with 
which the energy of heat is but a bagatelle. It is 
estimated that a little pea-sized fragment of radium 
has energy enough in store — could we but learn to 
use it — to drive the largest steamship across the ocean 
— taking the place of hundreds of tons of coal as now 
employed. The mechanics of the future must learn 
how to unlock this treasury of the molecule; how to 
get at these atomic and corpuscular forces, the very ex- 
istence of which was unknown to science until yester- 
day. The generation that has learned that secret 
will look back upon the fuel problems of our day 
somewhat as we regard the flint and steel and the open 
fire of the barbarian. 

If problems of energy offer such alluring possibili- 
ties as this, problems of matter are even more inspir- 
ing. The new synthetic chemistry sets no bounds to 
its ambitions. It has succeeded in manufacturing 
madder, indigo, and a multitude of minor compounds. 
It hopes some day to manufacture rubber, starch, 

[318] 



SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS 

sugar — even albumen itself, the very basis of life. 
Rubber is a relatively simple compound of hydrogen 
and carbon; starch and sugar are composed of hydro- 
gen, carbon, and oxygen; albumen has the same con- 
stituents, plus nitrogen. The raw materials for 
building up these substances lie everywhere about us 
in abundance. A lump of coal, a glass of water, and 
a whiff of atmosphere contain all the nutritive elements, 
could we properly mix them, of a loaf of bread or a 
beefsteak. And science will never rest content until 
it has learned how to make the combination. It is 
a long road to travel, even from the relatively advanced 
standpoint of to-day; but sooner or later science will 
surely travel it. 

And then — ^who can imagine, who dare predict, 
the social and economic revolution that must follow? 
Our social and business life to-day differs more widely 
from that of our grandfathers than theirs differed from 
the Hfe of the Egyptian and Babylonian of three thou- 
sand years ago; but this gap is as ditch to canon com- 
pared with the gap that separates us from the life of 
that generation of our descendants which shall have 
learned the secret of making food-stuffs from inor- 
ganic matter in the laboratory and factory. It is 
a long road to travel, I repeat; but modem science trav- 
els swiftly and with many short-cuts, and it may reach 
this goal more quickly than any conservative dreamer 
of to-day would dare to predict. 

All speed to the ambitious voyager! 



[319I 



t 



APPENDIX 

REFERENCE LIST AND NOTES 
CHAPTER I 

MAN AND NATURE 

For a general discussion of primitive conditions of labor and 
prehistoric man's civilization, it will be of interest in connection 
with this chapter to consult volume I., chapter I., which deals 
with prehistoric science. The appendix notes on that chapter 
(vol. I., pp. 302, 303) refer to some books which may be consulted 
for fuller information along the same lines. 

CHAPTER II 

HOV^ WORK IS DONE 

(p. 31). For study of Archimedes, giving a detailed account 
of his discoveries, see vol. I., p. 196 seq. It will be of interest 
also to review, in connection with this chapter, the story of the 
growth of knowledge of mechanics in the time of Galileo, Des- 
cartes, and Newton as told in the chapters entitled '^ Galileo and the 
New Physics," vol. II. (p. 93 seq\ and ''The Success of Galileo 
in Physical Science," vol. IL, p. 204 seq. 

CHAPTER III 

THE ANIMAL MACHINE 

For further insight into the activities of the animal machine, 
the reader may refer to various chapters on the progress of phy- 
siology and anatomy in earlier volumes. The following refer- 
ences will guide to the accounts of the successive advances from 
the earliest time: 

Vol. I., pp. 194, 195 describe briefly the earlier anatomical studies 

[321] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 



of the Alexandrian physicians, Herophilus and Erasistratus ; and 
pp. 282, 283, outline the studies of the famous physician, Galen. 

Vol. II., ''From Paracelsus to Harvey," in particular, p. 163 
seq; and chapters IV. (p. 173 seq.) and V. (p. 202 seq.) dealing with 
the progress of anatomy and physiology in the eighteenth and 
nineteenth centuries respectively. The chapter on "Experimental 
Psychology" (p. 245 seq.) may also be consulted. 

Vol. v., chapter V., dealing with the Marine Biological Labora- 
tory at Naples (p. 113 seq.) and chapter VI., ''Ernst Haeckel 
and the New Zoology " (p. 144 seq.) present other aspects of 
physiological problems. 

CHAPTER IV 

THE WORK OF AIR AND WATER 

On page 63 reference is made to the work of the old Greeks, 
Archimedes and Ctesibius. An account of Archimedes' discov- 
ery of the laws of buoyancy of solids and liquids will be found 
in vol. I., p. 208. 

(p. 64). The machines of Ctesibius and Hero. See vol. I., p. 
242 seq., for a full account of these mechanisms. 

(p. 65). Toricelli, the pupil of Galileo, and his discovery of 
atmospheric pressure. For a fuller account of his discovery and 
what came of it see vol. II., p. 120 seq. 

(p. 66). Boyle's experiments on atmospheric pressure. See 
vol. II., p. 204 seq. 

(p. 66). Mariotte and Von Guericke. See vol. II., p. 210 seq. 

(p. 71). Roman mills. A scholarly discussion of the subject 
of Roman mills, based on a comprehensive study of the references 
in classical literature, is given in Beckmann's History oj Inven- 
tions, London, 1846. 

(p. 73). Recent advances in water wheels. As stated in the 
text, the quotation is from an article on Motive Power Appliances y 
by Mr. Edward H. Sanborn, in the Twelfth Census Report of the 
United States. 

CHAPTER V 

CAPTIVE molecules; the story of the steam-engine 

(p. 82). The experiments of Hero of Alexandria. For a 
full account of the experiments see vol. I., pp. 249, 250. 

[322] 



1 



APPENDIX 

(p. 84). The Marquis of Worcester's steam engine. The 
original account appeared, as stated, in the Marquis of Worces- 
ter's Century of Inventions, published in 1663. 

(p. 92). Newcomen's engine. As stated in the text, the 
account of Newcomen's engine is quoted from the report of the 
Department of Science and Arts of the South Kensington Museum, 
now officially known as the Victoria and Albert Museum. 

(pp. 107-109). James Watt. The characterization of Watt 
here given is taken from an article in an early edition of the Edin- 
burgh Encyclopaedia published about the year 18 15. 

CHAPTER VI 

THE MASTER WORKER 

(p. 112). High-pressure steam. The work referred to is 
Leupold's Theatrum Machinarum, 1725. 

(p. 122). Rotary Engines. The quotation is from the report 
of the Victoria and Albert Museum above cited. 

(pp. 127, 128). Turbine engines. The quotation is from 
an anonymous article in the London Times, August 14, 1907. 

(pp. 129, 130). Turbine engines. The quotation is from 
an article on Motive Power Appliances in the Twelfth Census 
Report of the United States, vol. X., part IV., by Mr. Edward H. 
Sanborn. 

CHAPTER VII 

GAS AND OIL ENGINES 

(pp. 135, 136, 137). Gas engines. Quoted from the report of 
the Victoria and Albert Museum above cited. 

(pp. 141-144). Gas engines and steam engines in the United 
States. Quoted from the report of the Special Agents of the 
Twelfth Census of the United States, 1902. 

(pp. 146, 147). The Svea heater. From an article by Mr. 
G. Emil Hesse in The American Inventor for April 15, 1905. 

CHAPTER VIII 

THE SMALLEST WORKERS 

In connection with this chapter the reader will do well to re- 
view various earlier portions of the work outlining the general 

[323] 



THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 

history of the growth of knowledge of electricity and magnetism. 
For example: 

Vol. II., p. Ill seq.,ior an account of William Gilbert's study 
of magnetism; pp. 213, 215 describing first electrical machine; 
and chapter XIV., "The Progress of Electricity from Gilbert 
and Von Guericke to Franklin," p. 259 seq. 

Vol. III., chapter VII., " The Modern Development of Elec- 
tricity and Magnetism," p. 229 seq. 

Vol. v., p. 92 seq., the section on Prof. J. J. Thompson and the 
nature of electricity. 

Other chapters that may be advantageously reviewed in con- 
nection with the present one are the following: 

Vol. III., chapter VI., ''Modern Theories of Heat and Light," 
p. 206 seq.; chapter VIII. , ''The Conservation of Energy," p. 
253 seq.; and chapter IX., "The Ether and Ponderable Matter," 
p. 283 seq. 

CHAPTER IX 

man's newest co-laborer: the dynamo 

The references just given for chapter VIII. apply equally here. 
The experiments of Oersted and Faraday axe detailed in vol. 
III., p. 236 seq. 

CHAPTER X 

NIAGARA IN HARNESS 

Same references as for chapters VIII. and IX. 
CHAPTER XI 

THE BANISHMENT OF NIGHT 

(p. 221). Davy and the electric light. The quotation here 
given is reproduced from vol. III., pp. 234, 235. The very great 
importance and general interest of the subject seem to justify the 
repetition, descriptive of this first electric light. Davy's original 
paper was given at the Royal Institution in 1810. 

(p. 237). "Peter Cooper Hewitt — Inventor," by Ray Stan- 
nard Baker, in McClure^s Magazine, June, 1903, p. 172. 

In connection with the problem of color of the light emitted by 

[324] 



I 



APPENDIX 

IVIr. Hewitt's mercury-vapor tube, the chapter on "Newton and 
the Composition of Light" (vol. II., p. 225 seq.) may be consulted. 
Also "Modern Theories of Heat and Light," vol. III., p. 206 seq. 

CHAPTER XII 

THE MINERAL DEPTHS 

The chapter on "The Origin and Development of Modern 
Geology," vol. III., p. 116 seq., may be read in connection with 
the allied subjects here treated. 

In preparing the section on the use of electricity in mining, the 
article by Thomas Commerford Martin, entitled Electricity in 
Mining, in the United States Census Report of 1905, has been 
freely drawn upon. The quotations on pp. 262, 266, 268, and 
270 are from that source. 

CHAPTER XIII 

THE AGE OF STEEL 

See note under chapter XII. 

CHAPTER XIV 

SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS OF APPLIED SCIENCE 

In connection with various portions of this chapter the reader 
will find much that is of interest in the story of chemical develop- 
ment in general as detailed in volume III., pp. 3-72 inclusive. 

Also various chapters on electricity as outlined under chapter 
VII. above. 

(p. 310). Nitrogen from the air. The quotation is from the 
Engineering Supplement of the London Times, January 22, 1908. 



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